Tax Evasion:« 173 billion dollars smuggled out of Algeria overpast 33 years »

The Manager of penal affairs and clemency measures at the Justice Ministry, Mokhtar Lakhdari, has brought out the importance of international cooperation in the sustained struggle against the scourge of corruption through the activation of the relevant mechanisms.

Taking the floor at the opening on Monday in Algiers of the proceedings of a regional training workshop on “the fight against corruption, trans-border organized crime and the retrieval of money accruing from criminality”, organized for the benefit of magistrates and judicial police officers of North African countries, Mr Lakhdari said that the unflagging ant-corruption struggle should involve the setting up of unified international mechanisms.

The magistrates inquiring into corruption affairs need the help of their foreign fellow magistrates notably concerning the cross-examining of the defendants and the confiscation of shady bank accounts, he explained.

This timely workshop which comes as part of the Algeria – US judicial cooperation in the training of magistrates, is designed to streamline the viewpoints of North African magistrates and judicial police officers on the burning corruption issue which is closely linked to money laundering at regional and internationallevels.

Meanwhile, according to official figures issued of late by the African Development Bank, a total of 173 billion dollars have been smuggled out of Algeria as part of the nefarious plague of tax evasion between 1980 and 2009.