Sonatrach 1 scandal: Supreme Court summoned defendants in the case

Supreme Court contacted since more than two weeks ago, the accused in the case of “Sonatrach 1”, for the purpose of deposit notes of appeals that were filed since the month of February 2013, against the decision of the room of charges at Algiers Judicial Council, which referred the accused on the basis of felony, waiting for determining the hearing to adjudicate the appeals that were filed by the accused before the Supreme Court, Echorouk informed sources said.

Echorouk sources added that the defendants, who have made appeals to the Supreme Court for more than six months, will receive, in the next few days, warrants of appeals to examine them one by one before the final decision in the file and returning to Algiers Judicial Council, and this either by saying the appeal and referring the accused to the Court of Misdemeanors, as the investigating judge of the criminal court of Sidi M’hamed previously referred them at the beginning, on the basis of a misdemeanor, or refusing the appeal and referring the accused to the criminal court as approved by the Chamber of charges.

Sources linked to the file said that the cassation of appeal is going at a slow pace due to the sensitivity of the file, and the final decision may take a long time, as happened with the issue of “Khalifa”, in which the Supreme Court took more than 5 years for referring it again, in this context, lawyer who is accredited to the Supreme Court, Khaled Borghoul, said that an issue like “Sonatrach 1″ is very sensitive, and this is what makes the legal proceedings long, adding that the problem lies in the law, which does not specify the duration of the appeals, nor the date of referral to the trial, which is what happened in many important issues such as “Khalifa” case, and even Sonatrach case either the first or the second, which is still under investigation that is moving at a slow pace, and the same thing for the issue of the “east-west highway”, which is still pending in the Supreme Court.