Justice: Five-Year Prison Sentence For ES Setif Club President Hassan Hammar

On Tuesday, the Court of Misdemeanors convicted in absentia the current President of the ES Sétif football club, Hassan Hammar, with a 5-year prison sentence and a fine of 1 billion centimes (DA), and the same punishment was meted out to the former financial custodian of “Umm al-Hayat” real-estate cooperative.

The general secretary of the cooperative Baqouba was for his part sentenced to 3 years in prison, as the defendants were charged with gross misappropriation of private funds and breach of trust. 

According to a statement by the victims to “Echorouk”, the “Umm al-Hayat” cooperative was established on August 15, 1999, and is located near the water reservoir in the district of 500 housing compound in the city of Setif, whose head was Hassan Hammar who is accused of flouting the laws and regulations.

This real-estate cooperative’s first membership list for the year 2005 included 115 members before rising to 137 members in 2006, then to 161 members in 2007, and by finally jumping to 300 beneficiaries in 2014, all of them are said to be owners of “shady” funds.

It must be noted that that 50 members of this housing cooperative filed more than 30 legal cases against the head of the cooperative, accusing him of blatant illegal practices.

According to the referral decision, seen by “Echorouk”, the head of the cooperative namely Hassan Hammar, committed many abuses when he was the chairman of this cooperative, notably by withdrawing illegally 3 billion centimes (DA) from the coffers of this real-estate cooperative.