Justice: “Supreme Court Refuses To Retry Sidi Said And Tahar Allache”

The Supreme Court has rejected the retrial of the former general secretary of the General Union of Algerian Workers (UGTA) and confirmed his eight-year prison sentence with the permanent confiscation of all his real and movable property and bank accounts, according to the decision of the Algerian Judicial Council, which was appealed.
According to “Echorouk” sources, the verdict was issued by the Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court on Thursday 18 May, rejecting the appeal in cassation lodged by the defense team of the defendants in the case of the former General Secretary of the Algerian General Workers’ Union, Abdel Madjid Sidi Said, on the grounds that the facts are being monitored. They are serious, as they are accused of inciting public officials to use their real or supposed influence to obtain benefits that are not due to others, laundering the proceeds of corruption, concealing them and disguising their illegal origin, which are punishable under the Penal Code and the law of 01/06 on the prevention and suppression of corruption.
On the basis of these facts, the Supreme Court upheld the judgment appealed against by the Criminal Chamber of the Judicial Council of Algiers, which, on 28 December 2022, sentenced the main defendant in the case, Abdel Madjid Sidi Said, to eight years’ imprisonment and his son, Jamil, to one year’s imprisonment and his second son, Hanafi, to one year’s suspended sentence.
The sentence also included the confiscation of all real and movable property and bank deposits, while the judge’s sentences against the other defendants in the same case ranged from acquittal to a one-year suspended sentence.
In a related development, the Supreme Court, in its current session on 11 May, rejected the appeal in cassation lodged by the defence of Tahar Allache, the former director-general of Algiers International Airport, who was followed by 12 defendants accused of serious charges relating to the squandering of funds, the abuse of position in violation of laws and regulations with a view to obtaining unjustified benefits and granting unjustified concessions in the field of public transactions and organisations, and the solicitation of unjustified benefits in the field of public procurement.
The Supreme Court upheld the appeal of the Sixth Criminal Chamber of the Judicial Council of Algiers, which sentenced Allache to six years in prison and a fine of one million Algerian dinars.
The Supreme Court is expected to rule next Thursday on the appeal in cassation lodged by the Defence Ministry on behalf of 10 former ministers, including 3 heads of government, related to Ahmed Ouyahia and his predecessor Abdelmalek Sellal and Noureddine Bedoui, the last prime minister during the era of the late President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who followed in a heavy corruption file.
On 19 January, the Criminal Chamber of the Algerian Judicial Council upheld the first instance decisions of the Economic and Financial Criminal Court against the defendants, sentencing Ahmed Ouyahia to 12 years in prison and his predecessor Abdelmalek Sellal to 10 years in prison, while Bedoui was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
The head of the Economic and Financial Crimes Unit also signed the maximum sentence for the two fugitives former ministers of industry, Abdel Salam Bouchouareb and Abdel Hamid Temar, sentencing them to 20 years in prison and issuing an international arrest warrant for them, as well as 4 years in prison for the Minister of Transport and Public Works, Ammar Ghoul, compared to 8 years. The former Minister of Water Resources, Hocine Necib, was sentenced to 20 years’ imprisonment, as was his successor in the sector, Arezki Baraki, and the Minister of Posts and Communication Technologies, Imène Houda Feraoun, was sentenced to 4 years’ imprisonment, while the Criminal Court acquitted the former Minister of Posts, Ammar Tou, of all charges leveled against him.
The penal Pole Court sentenced former Finance Minister Mohamed Loukal to eight years’ imprisonment and fined each of the defendants one million dinars, while the verdicts signed by Judge Ben Boudiaf against the other defendants ranged from acquittal to two years’ suspended imprisonment and confiscation of all movable property and financial assets.