Algeria’s Public Treasury pays 200,000 Euros bail for Cheb Mami release

Algeria’s embassy in France paid 200,000 Euros from Public Treasury to get popular singer Cheb Mami out of prison as he was accused of voluntary violence, sequestration and threats against his girlfriend, lawyer says.

“I was in charge of the payment as I was the embassy’s lawyer. Mami was locked in four walls,” Khaled Lazber said in a debate between the coordinator of the Algerian Citizens’ Movement in France Omar Ait Mokhtar and a number of Algerian nationals.

“The money should not have been taken from the Public Treasury,” said Ait Mokhtar in response to the lawyer.

“Are the Ambassador and the embassy ready to pay that money for the release of a simple Algerian citizen living in France?” he added.

“Yes, they are,” Lazber answered him.

Ait Mojtar called on all Algerians prosecuted by the French justice to ask the embassy to pay money to get them out of prison.

“How can 200,000 Euros be paid from the Public Treasury for Cheb Mami while other Algerian nationals die in France and the embassy does not provide coffin to take their bodies to home country?” he said.

The debate took place in a court in Paris as the Algerian consulate in France filled a lawsuit against the Movement and the Immigration National Council for defamation.