Algeria: “This is how the seized funds were transferred to Hamel”

The administrative manager of 18 companies owned by businessman and former parliamentarian who fled justice, Ali Hamel, along with 17 defendants, including 16 arrested, will appear on Wednesday, September 11, before the Economic and Financial Penal Pole Court on corruption charges related to mismanagement and misuse of property seized by the Algerian judiciary.
The defendants in the case file will appear before the judge of the third branch of the Economic and Financial Penal Pole in Sidi M’hamed, on misdemeanors of abuse of office, squandering public funds and squandering private funds, in addition to squandering funds seized by the custodian, which are charges punishable under the Anti-Corruption and Prevention Law 01/06, in its articles 42, 41, 32 and 29, as well as Article 364, paragraph 2 of the Penal Code.
Regarding the case details, they go back to the receipt of several correspondences to the National Gendarmerie services, related to the transfer of funds, mismanagement, negligence and squandering of funds in companies owned by the businessman and former parliamentarian who fled justice, seized by the criminal judiciary, by the administrative administrator appointed by the Economic and Financial Criminal Pole Court in Sidi M’hamed in Algiers.
The investigations into the case of the companies supervised by the administrative administrator called “Z” have revealed the squandering of private funds and their transfer abroad to the account of the former parliamentarian from Adrar Hamel Ali, who benefited from undue privileges represented in 62 projects in violation of the law, of which he completed only 9 projects, in addition to his and his family members benefiting from industrial and agricultural properties in violation of the law.
Among the projects they obtained was a poultry farming project in Adrar and a service station in Timimoun, in addition to a logistics base in Bordj Badji Mokhtar, where the work rate did not exceed 15 percent, in addition to the Life Base project in 2017 and other properties, not to mention 12 fuel stations that the family of the former parliamentarian benefited from, along with the completion of an artificial beach project in Adrar and a development service station.
The accused Hamel and his associates were prosecuted before the Economic and Financial Pole on serious charges included in the Anti-Corruption and Prevention Law, such as granting undue privileges, squandering public funds, money laundering, and exploiting the position.
In return, the Criminal Court of the Algiers Judicial Council issued a judgment in absentia against the fugitive parliamentarian Ali Hamel on May 18, 2023, sentencing him to 10 years in prison with the confirmation of an arrest warrant against him.