Supreme Court’s Investigating Judge To Listen To Djamal Ould Abbas In Corruption Charges

The investigative adviser to the Supreme Court listens, on Wednesday, to Djamal Ould Abbas, the former General Secretary of the National Liberation Front and the former Minister of National Solidarity and Family, in cases related to corruption in his period of running the Ministry of Solidarity, and he will listen to Said Barakat, a former minister of the same ministry, by the same judicial authority next week.

According to Echorouk sources, the investigative adviser to the Supreme Court will start hearing the ministers and the frames who are included in the judicial concession in accordance with Article 573, where the second accused will be heard today by the former Minister Djamal Ould Abbas, in the case of wasting public funds and concluding deals that violate the legislation, and the exploitation of the job, and forgery in public minutes.

Ould Abbas’s lawyer, Farouk Ksentini, told Echorouk, on Tuesday, that his client will be heard today in corruption cases that are related to his supervision of the Ministry of Solidarity and Family, four months after he was temporarily detained by Algiers Harrache penal institution.

Ksentini said; “After hearing his client, the appeal will be filed with the same body in order to allow him to be released until the trial, due to his deteriorating health situation”.

The investigative adviser to the Supreme Court ordered the jail of Djamal Ould Abbas at Algiers Harrache provisional prison, on July 7th, while his successor, Said Barkat, was placed the next day, July 8th, and both face charges of wasting public funds and concluding deals contrary to legislation, exploitation of the power and forgery in public documents, which led to the loss of large funds for the public treasury, according to investigations that were conducted by the gendarmerie research group in Algiers, and the Central Bureau for the Suppression of Corruption.

According to the investigations over DZD 706 Billion were embezzled between 2001 and 2016 and were transferred to associations and non-governmental organizations, headed by Djamal Ould Abbas, when he was Minister of Solidarity, in addition to other illegal agreements and deals contrary to the legislation.

The investigator will also hear the two members of the National Assembly in charges of granting over DZD 200 Billion in 2010 by the former Minister of Solidarity, Said Barakat to his predecessor Djamel Ould Abbes on behalf of the association, he headed “Peace and Solidarity” in order to buy buses to transport pupils or the so-called “solidarity buses”, and his involvement in the conclusion of 15 illegal agreements to buy fake ambulances.

According to the investigation, the ministry’s funds were used by Djamal Ould Abbes to finance student associations and organizations, including the National Organization of Algerian Students, as part of the financial support that was obtained by crooked ways of DZD 5 Billion.

Although his organization has nothing to do with the Ministry of Solidarity and benefiting legally or illegally from grants to the Association of “emergency medicine” which received in its financial treasury more than DZD 5.2 Billion.