SNC Lavalin Scandals: Noureddine Boutarfa, Mohamed Meziane, 20 Accused Face Justice

The investigative judge of the First Chamber at the National Pole Court for Combating Financial and Economic Crime heard Mohamed Meziane, former general manager of Sonatrach, in the case of corruption deals related to “SNC Lavalin”, a Canadian company specialized in major engineering facilities and in which the former Energy Minister, Chakib Khelil was involved with his wife Arafat and his two sons, in addition to Noureddine Boutarfa, the former Minister of Energy and Mines, and Farid Bedjaoui with more than 20 other accused, provided that the file will be referred to the scheduling department to fix a date for the trial soon.

In the details that Echorouk possesses, the defendants in the case are being pursued with heavy corruption charges ranging from accepting, directly and indirectly, undue benefits and granting them to others to perform duties, intentionally granting unjustified privileges to others when concluding contracts, agreements and deals, and annexes that violate the legislative and regulatory provisions, on the occasion of preparing and conducting negotiations to conclude and implement public deals and contracts in the name of the state and economic public institutions, which is the part related to the bribery provided by the Canadian company “SNC Lavalan”, for the completion of the oil refining plant in Hassi Messaoud (southern Algeria).

Defendants were charged with “squandering public funds, exploiting actual and supposed influence to obtain undue benefits and granting them to others, intentionally misusing the job to perform work within the framework of exercising the job to obtain undue benefits and granting them to others, taking benefits illegally, directly and indirectly from contracts, tenders and contracts concluded by Sonatrach for which he is the director and supervisor, charges of money laundering and criminal proceeds resulting from corruption crimes, transferring property and funds resulting from criminal proceeds to disguise their unlawful source and acquire and possessing property and money resulting from proceeds of criminal acts, which are forbidden and punishable by Articles 26/1 29, 48 of Law 01-06 relating to combatting corruption, that was amended and supplemented, following Article 67, Paragraph 3 of the Criminal Procedure Law”.

The corruption case, which was opened at the level of the Supreme Court and was referred to Sidi M’hamed National Pole Court specialized in combating the financial and economic crime in Algiers, in which the investigating advisor issued an international arrest warrant for the fugitive Minister Chakib Khelil, his wife and his two sons, in addition to Noureddine Boutarfa, the former Minister of Energy and Mines, Farid Bedjaoui, the nephew of the former Foreign Minister and the right-hand man of Chakib Khelil.

The former General Manager of Sonatrach was placed under judicial supervision with more than 20 people also being followed in the case, directly or indirectly, in the facts of the corruption case.

The former Minister of Industry, Chakib Khelil, was forcing both Sonelgaz and Sonatrach to pay fines to the Canadian “SNC Lavalin”, as it turned out that the latter paid large sums of money to an offshore company called “Cadber Investments” to obtain large projects in Algeria throughout the whole period, Ten years, worth $4 billion, including the water treatment plant project in Tizi Ouzou province, worth $750 million.