A French detainee involved in Sonatrach scandal starts hunger strike

Former manager of ITGA Company, Howard Michel Andre, has started hunger strike for two weeks in Serkadji prison, in upper Algiers.

Michel Howard Andre is serving a 4-year sentence over charges of funds embezzlement and giving bribes to snatch the deal of installing a compound for Sonatrach in the south of Algeria. 

Algiers Criminal Court has convicted two Sonatrach officials to 7 years in the same case, after charging them of corruption and facilitating the French company to snatch the deal. 

To recall, the defense attorney of Howard Michel has required the court to summon his client’s former partner Jean Jacque Vandeville to give his witness on the case. 

Despite being the blower up of the case, Jean Jacques Vandeville, who lives in France, declines each time the judge’s summon to attend the trial. Defendant Howard Michel considers Vandoville as “a mere stealer who seeks revenge.”