EXTRADITION OF ABDELMOUMENE KHALIFA: British Home Secretary postponed the decision to April 31
The extradition of Abdelmoumene Khalifa to Algeria has been postponed to the next 30 April at the request of the British home Secretary Alan Johnson, according to what has been announced by the spokesman for the ministry.
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Same source said Johnson requested an additional term to discuss the case, justifying the new delay in the fact that the file is “complex” and it was initially planned that the British Home Secretary decided before last October 24, however; he asked for a delay four times, at the time when the Algerian Justice Minister Tayeb Belaiz has said that the British Home Office would take a decision on March 31, explaining that an appeal against the decision of extradition is possible.
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The series of delays by the British justice comes in the wake of approval to extradite Abdelmoumene Khalifa in June 2009 to the Algerian authorities, however; it was supposed this resolution will be approved by the British Home Secretary, as the judge Timothy Workman described the decision of extraction as “Not contracting with the international treaty of Human Rights”, and the statement by the British Ministry of Justice which was issued after the decision which was taken after a series of actions that accept the Algerian authorities’ request and launched discussions on the subject of request and examinations of evidences.
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Algeria’s request to extradite Abdelmoumene Khalifa is also based on files about forging documents, mortgage of the family house, a store and creating Al Khalifa company, and among the main charges against Al Khalifa, thefts in the various agencies belonging to Al Khalifa bank, anarchical management and currency conversions that were in reality well organized transactions and embezzlement.
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Previously, Abdelmoumene Khalifa was sentenced by Blidacriminal court, west of Algeria, to life prison after he was convicted in absentia for committing several crimes related to Al Khalifa Bank, and following his escape to the United Kingdom in 2003, then his arrest on March, 27 2007 in Britain under an international arrest warrant by the Court of Nanterre which had opened an investigation against Khalifa in 2003, charged of fraudaulous bankruptcy, abuse of social assets (abus de bien sociaux; i.e. corruption) and money-laundering.