A New List of 20 Senators to Lose Parliamentary Immunity

For the second time, the National Assembly’s office received a list of new notifications from the Ministry of Justice, related to withdrawing the parliamentary immunity of 20 senators, most of whom were newly elected, who emerged from the February 2022 elections, while Echorouk sources indicated that the charges against them were political and others related to the public right.

The file of withdrawing parliamentary immunity from representatives and members of the National Assembly has not been closed yet, despite the significant momentum accompanying the announcement of the first list of wanted persons for investigation before justice.

Echorouk sources revealed nearly 20 new notifications from the Ministry of Justice to the National Assembly office targeting newly elected representatives and others from the previous term and despite the failure of the Supreme Chamber of Parliament to decide about seven members concerned with lifting immunity on the pretext of the gaps resulting from the delay in the issuance of organic laws that comply with the provisions and provisions of the constitution, especially concerning the parties concerned with the notifications, the arrival of the second batch of notifications mixed the papers of the upper chamber of parliament, given the list that included influenced names.

According to the communications received by the National Assembly, the charges against members of the National Assembly this time are mostly political or “partisan” related to participating in the storming of the headquarters of the Liberation Front Party last September, in which party leaders known for their opposition to the current leadership of FLN were prosecuted, among them elected members of the National Assembly in the list of the capital Algiers and other eastern wilayas, in addition to a newly elected member.

Among the charges against the members of the National Assembly concerned with notifications from the Ministry of Justice, senators are wanted for investigation cases related to the public right, which they consider simple and do not require the withdrawal of immunity, and justice – according to them – can postpone it until the end of the mandate, especially since they are not criminal charges.

Despite the ambiguity surrounding the file and the reservations expressed by the two chambers of Parliament regarding the merits of the case that afflicted the MPs with “phobia” and turned into a source of panic among them in both chambers, and everyone wondered if their names were on the new list of the Ministry of Justice, the National Assembly’s office stands in confusion due to the presence of names concerned with the lifting of immunity which was recently elected, within the structures of the Council, including committee chairmen and even vice-chairmen and rapporteurs.

Suppose the MPs concerned with the withdrawal of immunity, whose names were mentioned in the first list according to – Echorouk sources – are proceeding with the procedures to waive it. In that case, most of them are apprehensive, as they preferred to wait for the decisions of the Constitutional Court. In contrast, the new ones tried to get close to the Minister of Justice Abderrachid Tebbi to inquire about their situation when he came to the National Assembly, on Monday, in the context of discussing the laws proposed by his ministerial department.

It is known that the offices of the two chambers of parliament had previously received notifications from the Ministry of Justice last April, to initiate procedures for lifting the immunity of 19 MPs in anticipation of their referral to the judicial authorities after it was proven that they were involved in various files, a move that sparked controversy among the representatives who have been elected since 9 months in the lower chamber, while the midterm elections for the upper chamber of parliament, were at the beginning of the current year.