Algeria : 38 private surveillance firms penalised, 7 others closed down for breaching law

Algerian Interior Minister Mr. Nourredine Yazid Zerhouni has announced that 7 private surveillance firms were ordered to close down and 38 others were penalized for failing to strictly abide by the laws and regulations in force.

The Minister said that 31 other private security firms had been refused an extension of their mandate to operate for similar reasons.

He further indicated that these sanctions had been taken by the authorities on account of a host of failings by these private security firms over the past few years.

According to the Interior Minister, these private security firms are reproached with committing several offences notably the haphazard and inopportune use of firearms, breaches of the law on the workers’ rights and gross irregularities in the workers’ contracts and salaries in addition to the logistical implication of some members of these firms in terrorist networks which they purportedly provided with arms and explosives .

A case in point is the recent involvement of several members of a private security firm in a dismantled terrorist ring in the province of Mostaganem in western Algeria .