Ex-Algeria PM Sentenced to 12 Years for Corruption

Former Algerian Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia surrounded by guards after being allowed to attend his brother's funeral on Monday (AFP)
Former Algerian Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia surrounded by guards after being allowed to attend his brother's funeral on Monday (AFP)
TT
20

Ex-Algeria PM Sentenced to 12 Years for Corruption

Former Algerian Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia surrounded by guards after being allowed to attend his brother's funeral on Monday (AFP)
Former Algerian Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia surrounded by guards after being allowed to attend his brother's funeral on Monday (AFP)

Former Algerian Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia faces a new severe prison sentence, the second in a matter of months, after being convicted in a corruption case linked to a business tycoon.

An Algerian court issued a verdict on Wednesday on the car assembly plant case involving Ouyahia and Abdelmalek Sellal, former ministers and businessmen.

Last year, a court jailed Ouyahia, who served four times as prime minister under former President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, for 15 years and Sellal, who served twice as prime minister, to 12 years in another corruption case.

The cases are linked to the car assembly industry in the north African country and illegal financing of Bouteflika’s election campaign.

The court issued a 12-year prison sentence against Ouyahia, and a 3-year sentence and a fine against former industry minister Youcef Yousfi, announcing his innocence of the charge of bribery.

The court also issued a 20-year sentence, a fine, and an arrest warrant against former industry minister Abdeslam Bouchouareb.

Mourad Eulmi, the head of the Algerian family-owned firm SOVAC which runs an assembly plant with Germany’s Volkswagen AG, was convicted and given a 10-year imprisonment.

The court case included “money laundering”, “smuggling public money abroad”, “evading the payment of taxes,” “granting loans from government banks out of interest to a businessman”, and “adapting the government job to a private interest.”

When questioned by the judge, Ouyahia defended himself by saying that all policies in the field of industrial investment, especially the activity of installing cars, were developed by former President Bouteflika, and that he was only the executor of those policies.

He added that he used to report daily to Bouteflilka about government works.



US Revokes Foreign Terrorist Designation for Syria's HTS

Syria's interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa speaks during a Ministerial formation of the government of the Syrian Arab Republic, in Damascus, Syria March 29, 2025. (Reuters)
Syria's interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa speaks during a Ministerial formation of the government of the Syrian Arab Republic, in Damascus, Syria March 29, 2025. (Reuters)
TT
20

US Revokes Foreign Terrorist Designation for Syria's HTS

Syria's interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa speaks during a Ministerial formation of the government of the Syrian Arab Republic, in Damascus, Syria March 29, 2025. (Reuters)
Syria's interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa speaks during a Ministerial formation of the government of the Syrian Arab Republic, in Damascus, Syria March 29, 2025. (Reuters)

President Donald Trump's administration on Monday revoked the foreign terrorist organization designation for Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, as Washington moves to remove US sanctions on Syria to help the country rebuild following years of a civil war.

In December, opposition factions led by HTS ousted Syria's former president Bashar al-Assad in a lightning offensive. Then-HTS leader Ahmed al-Sharaa became Syria's president and said he wanted to build an inclusive and democratic Syria.

HTS was previously known as al-Nusra Front when it was al-Qaeda's Syria branch. It broke off ties with al-Qaeda in 2016.

In May, Sharaa met with Trump in Riyadh where, in a major policy shift, the Republican president unexpectedly announced he would lift US sanctions on Syria, prompting Washington to significantly ease its measures.

"This FTO revocation is an important step in fulfilling President Trump’s vision of a stable, unified, and peaceful Syria," Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement, adding that the revocation will come into effect on Tuesday.

Last week, Trump signed an executive order terminating US sanctions program on Syria, a move that aims to end the country's isolation from the international financial system.

Syria's foreign ministry told Reuters that the lifting of sanctions on HTS was a "positive step toward correcting a course that previously hindered constructive engagement."

The written statement said Syria hoped the move would "contribute to the removal of remaining restrictions that continue to impact Syrian institutions and officials, and open the door to a rational, sovereign-based approach to international cooperation."

The ministry also said that Sharaa was planning to attend the upcoming United Nations General Assembly in September. The UN Security Council still has sanctions on both HTS and Sharaa himself, which require a Council decision to remove.