Sonatrach 1 scandal: 108 witnesses, 19 defendants and Chakib Khalil is not concerned with the scandal!

Criminal court of the Algiers judicial council started the trial of the accused in the case of “Sonatrach 1” which raised a lot of controversy over more than five years since the launch of the investigation, leading to the transfer of 15 people, who are mostly officials in Sonatrach, to justice on charges of corruption with four foreign companies, that are Algerian, Italian and German, in light of the absence of the most important accused in the case, who is the former Energy Minister, Chakib Khalil, who was not mentioned in the file, neither as a witness nor as an accused.

Criminal court’s judge, Mohamed Rekkad, started, here on Sunday, the criminal trial proceedings in “Sonatrach 1” file, and this after the delay of the case on last March 25, because of the absence of about 42 witnesses of the total 108, and the insistence of the defense to summon several key witnesses like Noureddine Cherouati, General Manager of Sonatrach, who succeeded Mohamed Meziane, in addition to the internal security official in Sonatrach, Boualem Arar, who was behind moving the file.

108 witnesses who are mostly managers and technicians

Lawyers indicated in the previous deferred session to the presence of several witnesses abroad, as some of them spoke about the absence of the puzzle’s keys in the case, because of their presence in foreign countries, to escape from justice, after opening the file of corruption in Sonatrach, and it comes to the President of the Court of Mohamed Meziane Reda Hamache, and even Farid Bedjaoui and Chakib Khalil, who are facing two international arrest warrants in the case of “Sonatrach 2”, as the lawyers already asked bringing them as witnesses in the very beginning of the investigation in the file, before uncovering the scandal of their implication with evidence and testimonies in front of the Italian justice.

Sonatrach 1 case will include a list of witnesses, as the judge ordered to summon them the absences and bring them by force, including a number of managers who were heads of Sonatrach since August 2009, to the present day, and it comes to Zerguine Abdelhamid and Said Sahnoune.

In the same context, the Chairman of Lawyers’ Organization of Sidi Bel Abbes, Mohamed Athmani, who is established against Mohamed Meziane, former General Manager of Sonatrach told Echorouk that Noreddine Cherouati, General Manager, said after the start of the investigation that his testimony will be very important and reveal many of the facts in the file, and refused to uncover the list of other witnesses, which he provided before the start of the session.

“It includes technicians and specialists in the transactions, and who are familiar with technical matters in Sonatrach, and will uncover many facts at the court, especially because there is no expertise report to determine the damage that faces Sonatrach.”