Judicial Notices to Lift the Immunity of 19 MPs

The Ministry of Justice sent notices to the offices of both houses of Parliament regarding requests to lift the immunity of 19 deputies and senators from various political parties on charges related to public rights issues, at a time when Echorouk sources indicated that most of the accused are MPs elected for the first time in the legislative body and members whose files had previously been frozen but justice decided to reopen.

The judicial authorities moved again in the legislative body, but this time to include 19 elected representatives between the upper and lower chambers of Parliament, based on notices sent last week to the offices of the National Assembly and the People’s National Council in an unexpected step, especially since the volume of notices regarding the lifting of immunity is the largest of its kind, Echorouk sources added.

The same sources explained that the lower chamber of Parliament received 12 requests to lift immunity, while the upper chamber received 7 requests to lift immunity, including 3 new MPs who were elected in the last mid-term renewal process for members of the National Assembly and 4 of the previous terms, including a senator who was previously noticed by justice to lift immunity from her, but her file has been frozen to be opened again.

Among the members concerned with the lifting of immunity was a person elected from a central Wilaya with judicial follow-up, as his file is still at the level of the Supreme Court, which raises several questions about how the senator was able to take a seat in the Senate, at a time when the investigations were at their height in the Independent National Authority, and at the time, many files were dropped due to judicial follow-ups.

On the other hand, Echorouk sources indicated that 12 MPs in the lower chamber of Parliament whose names were mentioned in the list of those concerned with lifting immunity are all elected for the first time, and belong to various political formations and that the cases in which they are followed by justice are old and most of them date back 3 or 4 years and are not related to terrorism or corruption, including the case of the representative from Setif (eastern Algeria), whose case was previously published by Echotouk, and who was accused of assaulting and beating one of his relatives.

While the political parties representing the concerned MPs rushed to write to the Minister of Justice, Abderrachid Tebbi, to request a respite, until the end of their parliamentary term, especially since they are pursued – according to them – on serious charges.

Article 130 of the new constitution, amended in November, states that a member of Parliament may be subject to judicial follow-up on acts not related to his parliamentary duties after an express waiver by the concerned person of his immunity, and the same article stipulates that if an MP refuses to waiver of immunity, the notifying bodies can send a notice to the Constitutional Court to issue a decision on whether or not to lift his/her immunity, the latter was created under the constitutional amendment that came in the November 2020 referendum.

For reference, the previous legislative term witnessed the lifting of immunity from several representatives and members of the National Assembly accused in corruption cases, by resorting to voting in a plenary session after they refused to waive immunity before the Legal Affairs Committee following the procedures that were in place earlier.