Belkacem Zeghmati: “There Were No Arrests Of Political Activists At Their Homes”

The Minister of Justice, Belkacem Zeghmati, condemned the rumors of the arrest of political activists at their homes without warning, saying that the accusations against the judicial police officers to infringe on people’s freedoms are rumors and those who do this aim to spread strife and confusion among Algerians.

The Minister of Justice took the opportunity to meet with members of the Economic and Financial Committee of the Council of Nation, to refute what was circulated about the arrest of political activists at their homes without warning.

He asserted during his presentation, on Wednesday, of the draft law of criminal procedures, that the Algerian Constitution protects the holiness of houses and the judicial police have no right to search in people’s homes without prior written permission from the Attorney General.

“Those who say that the judicial police officers violate the sanctities, freedoms, and property of the people, is poisonous words that aimed at spreading discord and confusion”, this statement comes in response to some rumors about the presence of political activists in jail and that they were arrested and cops searched their homes using an arbitrary manner legal without permission from the Attorney General”.

Regarding the bill, which was approved by the lower chamber deputies earlier, the minister returned to defend the amendments that included in it, explaining that the restoration of the judicial authority status to the military security officers, would allow them to investigate corruption cases in addition to the abolishment of the requirement of prior complaint from social bodies of the Public Economic Institution to follow up officials in case of suspicion of corruption or stealing public funds.

“The text of the law aims to lift some of the obstacles that were created by the field practice in the field of public prosecution and the work of the judicial police and to strengthen the protection of public money”.

“These obstacles had negative effects on the performance of the judicial police and the work of research and investigation in some types of crimes, especially economic crimes, and crimes of corruption”.

“The draft law will allow the strengthening of the performance of the judicial police, as it extends the powers and functions of judicial police officers who belong to the military security services, through the abolition of Article 15 bis of the Code of Criminal Procedure, which limited the functions of military security services in crimes against the security of the State, which affected negatively on the proper conduct of investigations in cases of common law, especially crimes that are harmful to the national economy”.