Corrupt Businessmen to Remain in Jail Until Repayment of Looted Money

The Algerian state’s efforts to recover the looted funds entered the last square, by informing the judicial services, about prisoners under corruption cases, of the inevitability of paying the fines imposed on them following justice decisions.

In this regard, the Public Prosecutor at the Algiers Judicial Council informed the prisoners, whose sentences are nearing the end, that they are obliged to pay the money owed to them, and in case of non-payment, the person concerned is subject, by force of law, to physical coercion, with a maximum duration of 24 months.

In the language of the law, physical coercion means that a prisoner who is due to pay the fines resulting from final judgments and decisions and has not paid them within their deadlines will remain in prison until he is acquitted of his responsibility to justice.

The documents in the possession of Echorouk, show that the Public Prosecution notified, through dispatches, the records of which were notified to the prisoners through the General Directorate of Prison Administration, and then to the re-education and rehabilitation institutions in which prisoners are present in corruption cases that were decided by the judicial services, of the need to pay the fines resulting from judgments, final decisions and ruling issued by the Algiers Judicial Council, and the same procedure applies to the rulings issued by the Tipaza and Boumerdes district councils, especially those who are close to completing their sentences, such as businessmen, owner of the “Ival” company, Mohamed Bairi and Hassan Arbaoui, owner of the “Global Motors” company representing “Kia”, and Ahmed Mazouz, owner of the “Mazouz” complex.

The content of the dispatch issued by the Public Prosecution Office of the Algerian Judicial Council and addressed to those convicted in corruption cases, in the form of businessmen, included a warning of fulfilment, intending to notify imprisonment when not paying to collect the financial fines that fall on the prisoner, according to the decisions issued by the Supreme Court on rejecting the appeals as a subject in the public case and to finally support the judgments issued by the Algerian Judicial Council.

The dispatch recalled the provisions of Article 604 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, which provides for 10 days to pay the amount. In case of non-payment, physical coercion shall be applied against them, for up to a maximum of 24 months.

For example, the amount that must be paid by the businessman and owner of the “Ival” company, Mohamed Bairi, after the final judgment was issued against him, is 1,360.542.467.00 DA, in exchange for the sums that must be paid by the owner of the “Sima Motors” Mahieddine Tahkout, SOVAC President Mourad Oulmi, Ahmed Mazouz, owner of “Mazouz” complex, and general manager of “Global Group” Hassan Arbaoui, pending the issuance of final judgments in cases that have been decided upon or in the investigation rooms of the Economic and Financial Penal Pole, regarding the businessman and former president of the FCE forum, Ali Haddad.