ORASCOM group spied on the Algerian citizens through an optic fibre linking Algerian to France

An inquiry was launched against several former top managers in the telecommunication sector who granted a permit to Orascom group to use an optic fibre under the sea through its landline operator “LACOM” before its departure from Algeria and kept using it until recently, though the Algerian authorities didn’t permit the Egyptian group to do it, sources with knowledge to the case have revealed.

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• The cable which has been set up since the beginning of the activities of the landline telephone operator “LACOM” (an affiliate of Orascom group) is made up of two parts the first one departs from the province of Annaba (eastern Algeria) and the second from the capital city Algeria to meet again in the deep sea to make one to reach the southern French city Marseille, the same sources revealed.
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• The group Orascom kept using the cable although its landline operator “ LACOM” was in a state of bankruptcy, raising thus several questions as to the real drives that pushed Orascom telecom to use this technology even at a loss.
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• These sources didn’t exclude the possibility that the cable that linked Algerian to France was used as a means to spy on the Algerian citizens and leak top secret conversations dealing with their private lives.
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• It should be noted that groups of experts from the Algerian telecommunication company have called on the regulation authority to freeze the auction concerning the equipment of the former operator “ LACOM” on account of the sensitiveness of the operation that requires a prior permit from the Algerian authorities.