These Are The Charges Leveled Against Ouyahia, Yousfi And Djoudi In The Sovak Case

On 17 June 2019, the Attorney General of the Court of Sidi M’hamed in Algiers referred the file of former Premier Ahmed Ouyahia, as well as those of the former Ministers of Industry and Finance respectively Youcef Yousfi and Karim Djoudi to the Attorney-General of the Magistrate’s Court, to consider their files as he deems fit according to the law.
The charges brought against them include the transfer of property resulting from criminal proceeds of corruption, participation in the dissolution and use of bank funds, abuse of function, inciting public officials to exploit their actual influence and to grant unjustified privileges to others.
According to a statement by the judicial official at the Sidi M’hamed court: “On the basis of an open preliminary investigation led by the research department of the National Gendarmerie in Algiers and in line with the instructions of the General Prosecutor of the Republic at Sidi M’hamed Court, on 16 June, 17 persons were brought before him for criminal proceedings.”
The same statement explained that after questioning about what was attributed to them, the representative of the Republic forwarded the case file to the investigating judge in the same court, where 15 defendants were charged for a number of crimes.
The charges involve money laundering and the transfer of property resulting from the proceeds of criminal offenses for the purpose of concealing and disguising their illicit origin within a criminal bunch and participating in the dissolution and use of the bank’s funds in violation of the interests of the Banks and inciting public officials to exploit their actual and assumed influence in order to secure undue financial spin-offs during the conclusion of contracts and transactions by inflating the prices and proceeding to the adjustment to their unlawful financial advantage the quality of materials, services and catering.
These offenses also include the violation of specific legislation and regulations, the illicit movement of capital to and from abroad and the deliberate misuse of the function for the purpose of granting undue benefits to others in violation of laws and regulations and the conclusion of contracts contrary to the legislative and regulatory provisions in force for the purpose of giving unjustified privileges to others, added the same source.
As for the persons who are being prosecuted, they are: “Oulmi Mourad, the Director General of the Sovak vehicle complex and his two brothers, in addition to 12 executives and staff members, including 7 belonging to the Ministry of Industry and Mines and 5 other executives belonging to a public bank.
As for those remaining and “by virtue of their functions on the date of the facts, their files were conveyed to the Attorney General at the Algiers District Court to act what he deems appropriate in their case, and this concerns a former senior minister and two former ministers”.