Algeria: 25 arrested for stealing 45 billion DZ from State’s Properties Department

Algeria’s security forces opened an investigation into corruption cases at the departments of the State’s Properties after 25 people had been introduced to justice accused of squandering public money estimated at more than 45 billion DZ, Echorouk has learnt.

The National Police Chief Abdelghani Hamel gave an instruction to lead an investigation into all the subsidies of the General department of the State’s Properties, according to sources.

This came as Hamel received a detailed report about corruption cases in many of those subsidies.

The 25 suspects are workers and executives at the department of the State’s Properties. They are accused of selling state-owned real-estates in illegal ways and squandering public money.

The case goes back to late March in 2012. Security forces learnt that suspicious transactions were carried out by many officials at the State’s Properties department. A total of 50 people were arrested. Of them, 25 were accused of being involved in the corruption cases.

Judicial sources told Echorouk the State’s Properties administration granted more than 1 million square meters. Of them, 10,000 concession cases were carried out in mysterious circumstances.