Former Interior Minister’s Son Buys a Building Worth DZD 52 Million
The corruption files of the leader of the financial cartel in the former regime, Ali Haddad, continue this time involving the son of a former interior minister during the era of the late Abdelaziz Bouteflika, bringing the number of cases in which the former chairman of the FCE (Forum of CEOs) Algerian Businessmen Forum to 10 files.
In detail, the investigating judge at the Bir Mourad Rais Court in Algiers, heard last week, Ali Haddad about corruption incidents related to the construction of a building in the most prestigious neighbourhoods of the capital, specifically in the municipality of Hydra, and selling it for an amount exceeding DZD 52 million.
The building was sold to the son of a former interior minister, who invested it into a private clinic, before the start of the popular movement (The Hirak). However, the sale procedures were completed but not finished. After things returned to their normal, that is, after 2019 when Haddad was placed in temporary detention and followed up on several corruption cases, then was convicted with a final ruling by the Supreme Court imposing a sentence of 12 years in prison, with the seizure of all his property, real estate, and financial and bank balances inside and outside the country.
The son of the former interior minister who lives abroad approached the relevant authorities and inquired about the method of paying the total amount for the building worth more than DZD 52 million, then an investigation was opened into the facts of the case.
The investigating judge at the Bir Mourad Rais Court, after hearing the son of the former Interior Minister, summoned Ali Haddad and interrogated him remotely via video conference, where he charged him with money laundering, acts stipulated in the Anti-Corruption and Prevention Law 01/06, and the investigation is continuing in the case, to reveal all the facts related to the building or rather the private clinic.
In the face of the ongoing investigations, Ali Haddad is being followed in other corruption files that will be revealed later. The charges against him are almost identical to the smuggling of funds estimated at billions and money laundering, especially since the successive trials revealed his possession of more than 55 companies, distributing their activities among public works, airports and marine works, in addition to tourism, hotels, asphalt, cars, cement, study offices, pharmaceutical products, urban works, rural works, car mechanics, sports, engineering, mining works, shoe manufacturing and finally tire inflating agencies and car sales.
Judicial rogatory commissions carried out by investigating judges at the Economic and Financial Criminal Court in Sidi M’hamed also revealed that the leader of the financial cartel possessed several properties in Algeria, consisting of apartments and villas, in addition to the “Hotel Palace Granvia” in Barcelona, Spain, which he bought for 54 million euros in 2011, at its current value amounted to 255 million euros, in addition to a residential apartment in Paris on 18th Avenue, which is famous for its luxury apartments, and bank balances, including the bank account opened at Société Générale Bank, Paris branch, and another at Santander Bank in Spain, and other accounts in various banks.