The Disappearance of 11 International Judicial Letters Rogatory Postpones the Trial of Bouteflika’s Clan

The tenth Criminal Chamber of the Algiers Judicial Council postponed to the date of April 18, the trial of the brother of the deceased president and his advisor, Said Bouteflika, businessmen Mahieddine Tahkout, Ali Haddad, the Kouninef brothers, Ahmed Mazouz, Mohamed Bairi, and the former MP Taher Missoum, known as “Specific”, along with more than 65 accused.

The postponement came at the request of the defence team, which submitted requests to provide it with 11 hidden boxes out of 40 boxes, including international judicial letters rogatory that were returned from foreign countries such as Switzerland and Spain, based on which some of the defendants were convicted, such as the Kouninef brothers and Said Bouteflika, where the lawyers considered these representations very important during the trial.

The session president agreed to the defence’s requests and decided to postpone the case to April 18, with the documents not available in the file being excluded during the next session, in case the prosecution was unable to find them.

The defendants’ prosecution will continue on charges of concealing proceeds resulting from “corruption crimes”, “money laundering”, “disposing of seized funds and property that were under judicial administration”, and violating exchange laws, after the return of judicial letters of attorney or inspections after the issuance of convictions.

On February 8, the judge of the judicial pole’s third branch imposed a sentence of 12 years in prison against Bouteflika and Haddad, 15 years in prison for Tahkout, 12 years for Maazouz, and 10 years in force against the Kouninef brothers “Tarek, Noa, Reda and Abdelkader Karim” and 8 years against Bairi.

The court also imposed a two-year sentence of imprisonment against the former MP Taher Missoum, while the rest of the penalties pronounced by the judge against the rest of the defendants ranged from 6 months to 10 years in prison, and some of them were announced not guilty of all charges against them, with the confiscation of all real estate and bank assets and illegal funds, even if they were transferred to the assets of the branches to their relatives, spouses and children.