Sonatrach did not fill a complaint; the case was moved by DRS services

An intensive Algerian and foreign media attended the launch of SONATRACH 1 case on Sunday at Algiers Criminal Court where the phases of the trial of the accused.

SONATRACH 1 case sparked a lot of controversy since moving it by the end of 2009 to this day, as it was dominated by the new procedures that were approved by President of the Republic in the order that amended the Code of Criminal Procedure on July 2015, concerning the lifting of criminality on managers, and put an end to the judicial follow-ups, based on the malicious and anonymous messages.

It was 9:42 am, and after waiting for more than an hour in a room that was filled with people, the Chairman of the criminal court and his advisers came to announce the trail’s opening session, and ask the clerk to call the suspects one by one, and it comes to 15 people who are Sonatrach frames and managers of private companies, and four companies that are followed as a moral person, then the German company “Kontal Von Kwart” defense, which informed him that the representative of the company that is followed up as a moral person moral was unable to attend because of the visa.

However, the judge Rakkad, wanted to proceed with the trial and did not accept any reason to postpone the trial, and confirmed to the lawyer’s company that it is followed with a misdemeanor, and even if its representative cannot attend the trial, which will take a period of time, the criminal court will take absentia proceedings in his case, and he will not disrupt the trial’s functioning, then the lawyer tried to persuade the Court that the presence of his client is necessary and they contacted the Algerian consulate in Germany to facilitate the visa procedures in order to attend the trial, but they did not help him with something, but the judge asked him not worry to tell him: “If necessary the court will ask the Attorney General to contact the Justice Ministry to intervene with the Foreign Ministry and decide on the issue.” He added: “There are legal solutions if your client could not attend.”

114 testimonies, two died and 30 did not attend the trial

The judge continued the trial proceedings, by calling on the civil parties, the representative of Sonatrach and the Treasury Judicial Agent, and once the treasury was mentioned the Professor Miloud Abrahma intervened to say to the President of the Court that he had reservations about its establishment as a civil party, but the judge asked him to wait and postpone his remarks until he ends the call on witnesses and other parties.

List that was read out by the judge showed that the majority of the witnesses are women, and the total number of witnesses reached 114, two of them died and thirty did not attend the meeting despite the fact that the court had already postponed the case to bring them by force.

The name of the former director of Sonatrach, Said Sahnoune, who succeeded Zarguine Abdelhamid, was among the moast important defendants, while the defense of Mohamed Meziane requested to call three witnesses by using public force, which was approved by the judge immediately.

The session noticed the presence of a witness who was accused in the file, and who benefited from the absence from a face case, and he was brought before the court once the lawyer Chenaif asked to bring him by using public force.

Late Houcine Ait Ahmed’s name in the trial

Once the Criminal Court chose a lineup, the controversy returned again and the legal debate started in the trial, where one of the lawyers called for preparing a special session to listen to the witnesses, and free them, as most of them are state frames and women, and exempt them from staying in the court until the allocation of a special hearing, but this request was rejected by the other lawyers, including Chaib Sadek, who considered that allowing the witnesses to leave the trial and following the trail through the media will affect them, wondering: “How would the court ordered the emancipation of control and bringing the witnesses today and them allowing them to leave.”

Professor Ait Arbi Mokrane confirmed that there is no legal provision to prevent the departure of witnesses until the date of the hearing, and then the court withdrew without the involvement of the jury for the deliberation in the defense requests.

After about half an hour, the judge ordered the demobilization of witnesses until Thursday to tell them about the session’s time, then the lawyer Bouchachi asked a strange request from the Court, and told the judge to change the date of the attendance of witnesses to another day, and this to be able to take a last look at the body of the deceased Hocine Ait Ahmed, but the head of the meeting insisted on Thursday, pointing out that there is a large probability that the hearing will be delayed to another day, and the witnesses left the room immediately.

Lawyers reject the establishment of the public treasury for the third time

The judge also opened the door to make payments, and lawyers again asked the Court to take a final decision about excluding the judicial agent of the public treasury, as Mokrane Ait Arbi called upon the court to appealing to the law, pointing out that the public treasury was unharmed in the case, because the facts and companies are followed up, and were not completed by the Treasury money funds but by Sonatrach. He added: “Let us leave the people in place and do not speak in its name.”