Network, including former policeman, smuggled immigrant and her daughter towards France

The criminal Court of the capital Algiers opened on Sunday, a criminal file, in which three people, including a former policeman at the Algiers International Airport “Houari Boumediene” accompanied by his cousin, and a lady in her forties, who appeared before justice on Sunday to face charges of engaging in illegal immigration and theft of a third part’s identity.

The latter were helped in their scheme by the former airport policeman, to board illegally on a plane bound for France, without a travel visa and with passports belonging to two other people, by receiving in return a bribe of 140 million centimes (DA).

The facts of the case, which was investigated at the level of El Harrach Court (eastern Algiers), date back to March 21, 2015, as the accused were intercepted at the level of Marseille airport in southern France as they arrived directly on board a flight coming from Algeria during the usual border police inspection and monitoring process there.

The serious incident was reported to the Algerian authorities urging them to take legal action in their own right, with the opening of a judicial inquiry to determine the circumstances behind the two person’s departure from Algiers in possession of documents that aren’t theirs.

The defendants told the presiding judge during the hearing that they’d resorted to this ploy to travel abroad out of great frustration and utter despair after having seen their visa requests turned down  several times by the French Consulate in Algiers and had thereby accepted an offer for help from a former airport policeman for an illegal trip to France in  exchange for 120 million centimes (DA).

After deliberations in the file, the court’s ruling gave the two defendants a four month- imprisonment suspended sentence while the search is still underway for the other accused who is still on the run. 

The latter was convicted in absentia in a previous trial to 10 years in prison on charges of smuggling of migrants and abuse of office, while his partner was cleared of all charges leveled against him.