“Khalifa Bank” trial to be held at Blida criminal Court amid tight security measures

The trial after cassation complaint of the Khalifa financial scandal case will be held Monday at the Criminal Court of Blida, eight years after the first trial in January 2007 at the level of the same court.

The programming of the trial after appeal in the case of the main Khalifa Bank Fund intervenes following the postponement of a trial scheduled for April 2, 2013.

The adjournment was motivated that day by the absence of six defendants who were to be summoned, but also to confirm the death of two other defendants among the 123 involved in this case during the trial of 2007.

On the whole, 75 defendants, having brought an appeal of the previous verdict, will be retried tomorrow in the criminal Court of Blida. Over 300 witnesses appearing for the second time, as well as victims and those representing the civil party will be present at the trial, which will be chaired by judge Antar Menouar.

The persons named as witnesses in this case during the first trial will be appearing in the same capacity during the new trial, and the Criminal Court shall comply during the trial with the first judgment of dismissal of the indictment.

It is therefore expected that only the persons charged in the first trial will be put on the dock. Abdelmoumene Rafik Khelifa, former CEO of Khalifa Bank, the principal accused in the case, will be present at the hearing and will appear as a witness, said a judicial source.

The same Court had issued in March 2007, after a trial that lasted nearly three months, penalties ranging from one year to 20 years in prison, and discharging some 50 people among the accused.

Ten other defendants were sentenced in absentia, including Abdelmoumene Khalifa himself, who had been sentenced to life imprisonment and who is not concerned by the new trial.

The counts against all these defendants are “constitution of a criminal conspiracy, robbery, fraud, breach of trust and falsification of official documents”.

Justice had seized of this case after the Bank of Algeria had found an overdraft of $ 3.2 billion of DA in the main fund of Khalifa Bank.

Abdelmoumene Khalifa had fled to the United Kingdom in 2003 and was arrested on 27 March 2007, on British territory under a European arrest warrant issued by the high court of Nanterre near Paris.

Extradited from United Kingdom, Abdelmoumene Rafik Khalifa was handed over to Algerian authorities in December 2013.

It is expected that the former CEO of Khalifa Bank will stand in a new trial, as his first conviction in absentia was rendered null and void, in accordance with the legislation in force.