Ouyahia, Sellal, Yousfi, Bedda and Bouchouareb… Again Before Justice!

The scheduling department of the Algiers Judicial Council has programmed the ” car assembly” file and the hidden financing of the electoral campaign for the fifth term of former President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, involving two former prime ministers, namely Ahmed Ouyahia and Abdelmalek Sellal, and 15 other defendants, including former ministers and businessmen, along with 50 other suspects who haven’t been arrested yet pending the end of the ongoing security investigations..

The Sidi M’hamed Court in Algiers issued penalties of up to 15 years, on February 12th, after the defense counsel appealed to the Court of First Instance.

To this end, the hearings of former ministers, senior officials and businessmen will therefore resume soon at the Sidi M’hamed court in Algiers.

As a result, four former ministers and two wealthy Algerian businessmen have been called to the bar. They are the two former Prime Ministers Ahmed Ouyahia and Abdelmalek Sellal; as well as the two former Ministers of Industry Youcef Yousi and Mahdjoub Bedda.

The latter are accused, among other things, of abuse of office and granting undue advantages to businessmen, including Ahmed Mazouz of the Mazouz automobile group and Mohamed Bairi, boss of the Ival Group.

Indeed, the judge had questioned during a first session, the main officials involved in the case of vehicle assembly units, questioning the preferential privileges and benefits granted to CEOs of car factories. They all denied the charges and accusations against them.

The former Minister of Industry, Youcef Yousfi, denied all the charges against him at his first hearing, claiming that he was merely carrying out the instructions given to him by the former Prime Minister, Ahmed Ouyahia.

Another striking fact is that the name of the former Minister of Industry during the period when the reform of the automobile market was adopted, Abdeslam Bouchouareb, was mentioned at each hearing.

All those responsible, such as Yousfi, Ouyahia, Bedda and Sellal, decided quite simply to charge the former minister, who is currently at large and is the subject of an international arrest warrant issued by the Algerian courts, following two summonses to which he has not replied.

Since the trial began, the “billions” have been pouring in from everywhere. For example, no less than 300 billion centimes (DA) have passed through the account of former Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia, in the space of one year only.

The election campaign of deposed President Bouteflika collected 75 billion centimes (DA), including 19 billion centimes (DA) from the former boss and CEO of the ETRHB group Ali Haddad, now in prison, whose name was mentioned at the last court hearing.