Jobless young man poses as Gendarmerie officer to retrieve withdrawn driving licence

The National Gendarmerie High Command has issued stringent guidelines to all its units enjoining them not to hand back the driving licences withdrawn by the Gendarmerie road patrols to those careless drivers having violated the Highway Code after external interventions.  

• Under these directives, any national Gendarmerie element who would give back a withdrawn driving licence before its examining by the relevant road safety commission would be severely punished after being brought before the military justice on charges of infringement of the internal regulations.
• These strict measures are aimed at deterring careless drivers from committing breaches to the Highway Code and putting an end to the “impunity” enjoyed by certain persons having high-level connections, a Gendarmerie officer told Echorouk.
• Withdrawn driving licences are often retrieved after a simple phone-call from high up, he said bitterly.
• Henceforth, the Gendarmerie elements will show no permissiveness at all with faulty drivers and the decisions on the withdrawal of driving licences on the roads will be without appeal until the end of the relevant legal procedure.
• The Gendarmerie high command’s move is mainly designed to curb the so-called “road terrorism” which claims over 4000 lives every year in Algeria on account of over speeding and glaring carelessness on the part of some drivers across the national territory.
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