11 Judicial Charges Chasing Khalida Toumi In Cultural Corruption Case

The former Minister of Culture, Khalida Toumi, faces 11 judicial charges related to corruption files and she was notified of only one of them notably related to “Algeria, the capital of Arab culture 2007”, despite the passage of 17 months of her provisional detention in Kolea prison, after she was charged of abuse of authority, influence peddling, squandering of public money and granting of undue privileges.

In legal details in the possession of ”Echorouk”, the investigating judge in the Fifth Chamber of the Financial and Economic Pole of the Court of Sidi M’hamed of Algiers recently refused the request for the release of Khalida Toumi, which was submitted by the defense team, pending the decision of the accusation chamber at the Algerian Judicial Council, and this after she was informed of an expert report.

The accusations against the former minister are therefore linked to the management of her department, in particular the major cultural events organized during the time of ousted president Abdelaziz Bouteflika.

It is, in fact, about the staging of the events “Algiers, capital of Arab culture in 2007”, the “Panafrican festival in 2009”, “Tlemcen, capital of islamic culture in 2011”.

Placed in pre-trial detention on November 4, 2019, the former minister is therefore accused of “granting indefinite advantages in public contracts” and “abuse of office by performing an act in violation of the law”.

Since then, her defense has not stopped denouncing the “illegality” of her pre-trial detention, seizing, among other actions, the President of the Republic, last October, in order to “apply the law and guarantee his right to freedom”.

Moreover, lawyer Boudjemaa Gachir one of the defendant’s lawyers, believes that being prosecuted for “management offenses does not require the imprisonment of his client”, especially as “the President of the Republic called for this fact to be decriminalized ”.

Despite the incessant defense demands of the former minister, the judicial bodies in charge of the case still responded by affirming that the case was proceeding in “respect for the law”.

On February 11, the indictments chamber at the Algiers court extended the pre-trial detention of former culture minister Khalida Toumi by four months.

A heavy file thus awaits the magistrates of the specialized pole of the court of Sidi-M’hamed where the investigation of the case of the former Minister of Culture, Khalida Toumi, will begin, we learned from her lawyers.

Its file has been the subject of several expertise studies relating to its management during past cultural events of: “Algiers, capital of Arab culture” in 2007, the Pan-African Festival in 2009 and “Tlemcen capital of Islamic culture” in 2011. The former culture minister was imprisoned by the Supreme Court’s rapporteur advisor and is being prosecuted on several counts, including influence peddling, abuse of authority, embezzlement and squandering of public funds.

She is also charged with manifest negligence leading to the squandering of huge sums of money during cultural events that our country has organized like Algiers, capital of Arab culture, Tlemcen of Islamic culture and Constantine, capital of Arab culture.
It is important to remember that the former Minister of Culture, Khalida Toumi, was remanded in custody on November 4, 2019, by the magistrate advising the Supreme Court, for “granting undue advantages in public contracts “,” Abuse of office by performing an act in violation of the law “, accusations concerning the staging of the mega events namely: “Algiers, capital of Arab culture in 2007 “, the” Pan-African Festival in 2009 “,” and Tlemcen, capital of Islamic culture in 2011 ”.