Algiers’ Supreme Court summoned former Algerian Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia and Minister of Industry and Mines Yousef Yousefi, both imprisoned on corruption charges, to question them about loans granted to an imprisoned senior businessman.
Former Minister of Public Works, Amar Ghoul, who had been detained for five months, was also summoned in the same case, a judicial source told Asharq Al-Awsat.
He explained that the investigation with the three prominent officials is focusing on their connection to the automobile factory of businessman Mahieddine Tahkout.
The judicial source suggested that new charges could be made against the three former officials over their exploitation of their position for personal purposes and granting undue privileges for a businessman.
In December, an Algiers court had sentenced Ouyahia to 15 years in prison and Yousefi to 10 years in corruption cases. The were sentenced for corruption in the car assembly business and “hidden financing” of Bouteflika’s campaign for a fifth five-year term in an election that was scrapped earlier last year.
Former Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal was convicted of 12 years in prison, while other sentences were passed against former ministers and businessmen.
Said Bouteflika, the brother of the former president, was summoned from his military prison to the trial session of Ouyahia, Sellal, and the rest of the ministers, after his name was mentioned in the proceedings, but he refused to answer the judge’s questions.
Last September, the military judiciary condemned Said Bouteflika to 15 years in prison for “conspiracy against the state's authority” and “conspiring against the army.”
The judiciary imposed the same punishment in the same charges, against the former chief of intelligence Mohamed Madian, Major General Bashir Tariq and Louisa Hanoune who was a presidential candidate in 2014.
Former Minister of Defense Major General Khaled Nezzar was sentenced by the military court in absentia to 20 years in prison. Nezzar has sought refuge in Spain.
The majority of government officials imprisoned by the judiciary were accused by the Supreme Court of “misappropriation of public funds, abuse of power and granting undue privileges.”
