Judicial Authorities To Open 9 Corruption Scandals On September

The judicial agenda continues during September by reopening 9 heavy corruption files, in which ministers, governors, and high-ranking officials in the state and businessmen, are pursued on several charges, most of which are involved in misdemeanours of deliberately granting unjustified privileges to others in the field of public deals that are not in conformity with the legislative and executive provisions which conflicted public interest, and deliberate squandering of public funds, false statements, job abuse and bribery.

According to the calendar that Echorouk holds, the start will be from the Misdemeanors’ Court of Sidi M’hamed in Algiers, which programmed the brothers Koninav on September 2, where the brothers Rida, Karim, Abdelkader, and Tarik are facing charges related to money laundering and criminal proceeds to disguise their illegal source, the acquisition and possession of property and funds generated by the proceeds of crime, inciting public officials to exploit their actual and supposed influence to obtain undue benefits from public administrations and authorities, the hidden financing of a political party and benefiting from the power and influence of state agents, local groups, institutions and public bodies subject to their benefit in the quality of materials, services, delivery and supply times, and these acts are stipulated and punished by Articles 389 bis, 389 bis 2 of the Penal Code and Articles 26/2, 32/1, 39, 42 of the Law on Prevention and Combating Corruption.

On the same day, that is, September 2, the case of MP Bahaeddine Tliba, who was followed with the two sons of FLN’s former General Secretary, Djamel Ould Abbas, who was also programmed with blackmail and bribes to rank top of the list in the National Liberation Front for Annaba province (eastern Algeria) during the last local elections, where Tliba blew up the case by submitting a complaint in 2017 in which he confirmed that the sons of Ould Abbas asked him a sum of 7 billion centimes, to place him at the top of FLN list in Annaba, and explained before the legislative elections that he refused these bargains even though the two sons of Ould Abbas threatened to drop him from the list, indicating that he was a victim in the file, especially since he contacted the intelligence director at the time, Bachir Tartag, to open an investigation into the case, which was covered up at the time. However, after the events of February 2019, the case file was searched again, so Tliba was summoned to hear his statements and he was jailed afterwards.

On the other hand, the Algerian Judicial Council will resume on September 6th in the case of the businessman, the former chairman of FCE, Ali Haddad, who was convicted by the court of the first instance of Sidi M’hamed, with 18 years in prison and a fine of 8 million Algerian dinars, confiscation of all his property and the punishment of his companies which are pursued as a legal person for the crime of money laundering and sentenced with a fine worth 32 million dinars each.

On September 7, the same judicial body programmed the file of the businessman Mohieddine Tahkout, who was also convicted by the First Instance Court of Sidi M’hamed, with 16 years imprisonment, in the case of what is known as “tires’ inflation” and public deals related to the university and semi-urban transport, which is the file that dragged each of the first two former ministers, Ahmed Ouyahia and Abdelmalek Sellal, and the former Industry Ministers, Abdessalam Bouchouareb and Youcef Yousfi, and the former Transport Ministers, Ammar Ghoul and Abdelghani Zaalane, and 5 former governors, along with 56 suspects.

For his part, the specialized criminal pole at the Sidi M’hamed court will open for the first time the file of the two former Ministers, Djamal Ould Abbas and Said Barakat, on September 9th, related to “manipulating the funds of neddy and people with special needs”, as the two ministers will face heavy corruption cases related to their supervision over the Solidarity and Family Ministry.

In the case file, Djamal Ould Abbas is suspected of being involved in squandering billions of dinars, which were embezzled between 2001 and 2003, as they were transferred, according to the investigations of the relevant authorities, to associations and non-governmental organizations, headed by Djamal Ould Abbas when he was Minister of Solidarity, in addition to other illegal agreements and deals violating the legislation, supervised by the former Minister of Solidarity, Said Barakat.

In addition to Ould Abbas, 21 suspected persons are being followed in the case, including the former Secretary-General of the Ministry of Solidarity and Family, in addition to 9 executives in the same ministry, central directors, state directors of the sector and heads of associations that benefited from huge funds, and they did not have any associative activity. They even seized the money of the needy, the deprived, the handicapped, and those with special needs.

Ould Abbas is also followed over the issue of buying 1,200 computers and buses to transport students without announcing the deals according to the laws in force, but rather it was consensual, as he has involved in the bus cases his predecessor, Said Barakat, who granted a sum of more than 2000 billion centimes in 2010, to his predecessor Djamal Ould Abbas, on behalf of his association which he headed called “Peace and Solidarity”, to purchase student buses, or the so-called “solidarity buses”, and his involvement in concluding 15 illegal agreements to buy fake ambulances.

Besides, the Boumerdes District Council will open an “appeal” in the case of the former Director-General of National Security, Major General, Abdelghani Hamel, and those with him on September 13th, which is the file related to the transfer of agricultural property in the province of Tipasa, which dragged the former Minister, Abdelkader Kadi, and the former governor of the province of Tipasa Mustafa Al-Ayadi and several officials and executives to the judicial authorities, who were convicted in the first instance with sentences ranging from 3 to 12 years in prison.

In the same month, that is, on September 20, the Blida District Council examines the case of the former Director-General of National Security, Major General Hamel, accompanied by the former head of the Algerian provincial security, Noureddine Barachdi, as they were sentenced by the Blida Court of First Instance to 4 years in prison.

On the same day, that is, on September 20, the Algerian Judicial Council opens the case that was appealed by the businessman and owner of the “Sovak” complex, Mourad Oulmi, who was sentenced by the Court of the First Instance of Sidi M’hamed, with a sentence of 10 years imprisonment in force and 8 million fines, while the former Prime Minister, Ahmed Ouyahia, who is followed up in the case, was sentenced to 12 years in prison.

September 30th will end with the start of the trial of “Madame Maya” and the two former Ministers, Abdelghani Zaalan and Mouhamed Ghazi, in Algiers Cheraga court, after it was postponed on August 26.