Businessmen, Ministers, and Officials Who Are Facing Corruption Charges Will Not Be Released

The Indictment Chamber of Algiers Judicial Council rejected, on Monday, the request for the release of the businessman, Mahieddine Tahkout, who is in temporary custody over corruption cases.

The decision to reject the indictment was filed a week after by Tahkout defense board, headed by the attorney, Khaled Bouraiou, who provided guarantees of immediate compliance before the examining magistrate whenever he called for that. However, members of the Chamber and after a week-long deliberation, had acknowledged that the charges that are investigated by the judicial follow-up are serious relating to the obtaining of undue advantages in the area of public transactions and collective services, which required that he must be kept in prison until the investigations will be completed and he will be transferred to trial.

Earlier on May,4, the indictment chamber of the Algiers Judicial Council rejected the release of the businessman Ysaad Rabrab, who faces charges of falsifying the movement of capital, inflating import bills and importing used equipment despite the use of tax and banking tax concessions.

On June 26, the same court rejected the appeal against the release of the retired General, Ali Ghadiri, and his release, in view of the charges for which the accused was prosecuted including charges of forgery and imitating the seals of the forms for running in the Presidential Elections.

The same decision was made by the indictment chamber of Algiers Judicial Council regarding the deposition of the former businessman and the former chairman of the forum of heads of institutions, Ali Haddad, where the defense request was rejected due to the seriousness of the facts that are attributed to him by taking advantage of unjustified concessions in the field of public transactions, making use of the influence of public agents, taking advantage of unjustified real estate privileges, hidden funding of political parties.

For his part, the judge of the military investigation refused, on Sunday, the request for the release of the defendants Said Bouteflika, and the former director of the intelligence service, the Mohamad Mediene called General “Toufik” and the former intelligence coordinator, General Bachir Tartag, and the General Secretary of the Labor Party, Louisa Hanoune.

In the same context, the lawyer and the head of the National Advisory Committee for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, the former Professor, Farouk Ksantini, told Echorouk, on Monday, that all the businessmen and ministers and officials who have been recently jailed, face the same decision of refusal to be released, in view of the serious charges that are attributed to them, saying: “It is impossible to release them”.

“This is due to two reasons. The first is that the appeal of the filing decision at the level of the indictment chamber, whether in the civil or military courts, has always been rejected. This has been the case since it was started. Secondly, the main reason is the quality of the charges against those who have been prosecuted by the military court and who will be called by the Court of Sidi M’hamed and the Supreme Court.