Algeria: Trial Of “Madam Maya” Postponed Until October 7th

The trial of Nachinachi Zoulikha-Chafika, known as “Maya”, tried for corruption cases, was postponed Wednesday by the court of Chéraga (Algiers) to 7 October 2020.

The postponement is due to the boycott of the hearing by the defense in application of the decision of the Union of Bar Associations of Algiers on the suspension of pleadings and judicial work for one week from Sunday (September 27). The trial had already been postponed twice during the month of August last year at the request of the defense.

The case of Nachinachi Zoulikha-Chafika (known as Madam Maya), also concerns her two daughters, as well as Abdelghani Zaalane and Mohamed Ghazi, prosecuted respectively as ex walis of Oran and Chlef, and the former director general of National Security, Abdelghani Hamel.

The charges against the accused include “money laundering”, “influence peddling”, “granting of undue advantages”, “squandering of public funds”, “inciting public officials to grant undue advantages” and “illicit transfer of foreign currency abroad”.

At the beginning of the session, Mohamed Ghazi asked the judge to be provisionally released for health reasons. The judge indicated that the court will consider this request.

Ms Maya was arrested in July 2019, in her villa in Moretti, west of the capital. In the course of their investigations, the security services concerned got their hands on 270,000 euros, 30,000 dollars, 120 million dinars, 17 kg of gold jewellery and fake passports in the villa No. 143 occupied by Ms. Maya at the state residence. The discovery of these administrative documents earned the two daughters of this lady 18 months in prison.

Before her arrest, Mrs Maya was a powerful woman with a large network of very useful acquaintances (ministers, walis or governors, senior civil servants, security officials, etc.), numerous real estate assets in Algeria and abroad, well-stocked accounts in dinars and foreign currency, etc. She was also the first woman to be arrested. A personality benefiting from a 24-hour police escort and for whom all the doors of the Presidency of the Republic were easily open.

How did Mrs Maya achieve such a meteoric rise? A single meeting in 2000 with the former President of the Republic, a friend of her Mujahid father, served as a springboard for Ms. Maya to carve out a place in the sun in the very select business world. To amass her immense fortune, she had above all used a sesame: the hidden daughter of the president.

It was only in 2017 that the president’s brother adviser, Said, discovered the deception, instructing the coordinator of security services at the Presidency, Bashir Tartag, to open an investigation into this identity thief who will be arrested before being released. But it was only in July 2019, the day after the fall of her benefactor, that Ms. Maya entered into disgrace.