Algiers Criminal Court Postpones The Trial Of Oulmi, Ouyahia and Yousfi To September, 20

The First Criminal Chamber of Algiers Judicial Council postponed on Wednesday morning the trial of Mourad Oulmi, owner of Sovak company the former Prime Minister, Ahmed Ouyahia, and the former Industry Minister, Youcef Yousfi, with employees of this ministry and the Algerian People’s Loan Bank to the date of September 20, 2020, at the request of the defence.

This postponement is considered the first of its kind that affects the case, as the detainees were not extracted from the penal institution during the appeal session on Wednesday, while the presiding officer decided to postpone the trial immediately after calling on the parties to the case, which returned to the front again after the appeal of all parties including the accused, the public prosecution and the civil parties to the rulings issued by Algiers Sidi M’hamed Court since two months ago when it imposed a sentence of 10 years in prison, DZD 8 million fines for the director of Sovac, Mourad Oulmi, 12 years in prison for the former Prime Minister, Ahmed Ouyahia, and 7 years in prison against Oulmi Khider.

The former Industry Minister, Youcef Yousfi, and Boudiab Omar, the former General Manager of the Algerian Popular Loan Bank, were sentenced to 3 years in prison, as for the rest of the defendants who are employees in the Industry Ministry of Industry and the loan committee of the “CPA” bank, were sentenced to two years in prison, of which one year was suspended from execution, while Abdelkrim Mostafa, a former General Manager for Industrial Development and Technology at the Industry Ministry and Djahnaoui Faouzi were declared not guilty. As for the companies that are followed by justice as a legal person, they were sentenced to a fine of 32 million DZD for each of them, with the order to confiscate all the property belonging to Oulami and his brother and obliging the defendants to pay a compensation amount to the public treasury, worth about 2256 billion centimes.

It should be noted that the investigations into the car installation corruption case revealed that the owner of the “Sovac” company, Mourad Oulmi, benefited from tax exemptions and privileges under the “SKD” and “CKD” system, which caused the depletion of public money in the installation of cars’ projects.

It was revealed through the file that the owner of the SOVAC owns several properties, including 20 real estates inside and outside the homeland and 17 companies, and gets several loans from the Algerian Popular Loan Bank, and he revealed during his trial that he had paid the amount of the loans and the interest that he obtained, which was confirmed by the Algerian Popular Loan Manager who submitted documents to the court, proving that the bank is getting profits through its investment in cars with Sovak company.