Algerian Judiciary Considers Hearing Testimony of Bouteflika’s Brother

Former Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika’s brother Said Bouteflika.
Former Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika’s brother Said Bouteflika.
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Algerian Judiciary Considers Hearing Testimony of Bouteflika’s Brother

Former Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika’s brother Said Bouteflika.
Former Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika’s brother Said Bouteflika.

The Algerian judiciary has been considering a request to summon former President Abdelaziz Bouteflika’s brother, Said, from the military prison to hear his testimony on issues mentioned during his trial.

The request has been submitted by the defense team of one of the former regime’s prominent figures, who is on trial on corruption charges.

The defense team of Algeria’s former Police Chief Abdelghani Hamel told reporters that they had filed a petition to the Appeals Court demanding Bouteflika’s summoning.

They said Hamel accuses Bouteflika of sacking him in a phone call.

According to Hamel, Said ordered the Interior Minister to dismiss Hamel in June 2017 following statements in which he insulted then Gendarmerie Commander General Ghali Belkecir.

Hamel was fired due to a cocaine trafficking scandal in western Algeria, and his son’s name came up in the Gendarmerie’s probes.

Lawyers said the magistrate in charge of his trial had promised to review the request.

“The magistrate cannot allow Said to be brought from his prison without the consent of the state’s influential figures,” one of the lawyers told Asharq Al-Awsat, noting that these figures won’t wish to hear scandals Said would tell.

Bouteflika’s brother was summoned by a court in September 2019 as a witness in the trial of businessmen and former officials on corruption charges involving millions of dollars in funding for his brother's aborted campaign.

Said was sentenced in September, along with several other high-level regime officials, to 15 years in jail for “conspiring” against the state and undermining the authority of the army.

He gave his name in court but refused to respond to questions by the judge or a prosecutor.

The judge ordered that he be sent back to the military prison in Blida where he is serving his sentence.

Said’s refusal to testify was said to be due to his fear of retaliation by Army Commander Lieutenant General Gaid Saleh, who died of a heart attack in late 2019.

Observers believe Said has nothing to lose once summoned on Hamel’s case, adding that he would tell the court all what he knows.

Hamel was sentenced to 15 years in prison in a corruption case.

He and his family are accused of owning real estate and shops in coastal areas, and his three sons have been sentenced to several years in prison.

He was one of the most prominent figures of Bouteflika’s regime and has been suggested to succeed Bouteflika who was unfit to rule due to illness.



Israeli Strike in Gaza Kills Workers with World Central Kitchen Charity

Palestinians inspect a destroyed vehicle on Salah al-Din Road following Israeli military strikes, east of Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, 30 November 2024. (EPA)
Palestinians inspect a destroyed vehicle on Salah al-Din Road following Israeli military strikes, east of Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, 30 November 2024. (EPA)
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Israeli Strike in Gaza Kills Workers with World Central Kitchen Charity

Palestinians inspect a destroyed vehicle on Salah al-Din Road following Israeli military strikes, east of Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, 30 November 2024. (EPA)
Palestinians inspect a destroyed vehicle on Salah al-Din Road following Israeli military strikes, east of Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, 30 November 2024. (EPA)

An Israeli airstrike on a car in the Gaza Strip on Saturday killed five people including employees of World Central Kitchen, and the charity said it was “urgently seeking more details” after Israel's military said it targeted a WCK worker who had been part of the Hamas attack that sparked the war.

WCK in an email said it was “heartbroken” by the airstrike and that it had no knowledge anyone in the car had alleged ties to the Oct. 7, 2023 attack, saying it was “working with incomplete information.” It said it was pausing operations in Gaza.

The charity's aid delivery efforts in Gaza were temporarily suspended earlier this year after an Israeli strike killed seven of its workers, most of them foreigners.

The Israeli military in a statement said the alleged Oct. 7 attacker had worked with WCK and it asked “senior officials from the international community and the WCK administration to clarify" how that had come about.

The violence in Gaza raged even as a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah appeared to be holding, despite sporadic episodes that have tested its fragility. Israel on Saturday struck what it said were Hezbollah weapons smuggling sites along Syria's border with Lebanon.

The strike on the vehicle was the latest in what aid agencies have described as the dangerous work of delivering aid in Gaza, where the war has sparked a humanitarian crisis that has displaced much of the territory's 2.3 million population and triggered widespread hunger.

World Central Kitchen provides meals to people in need following natural disasters or to those enduring conflict. Its teams have often served as a lifeline for people in Gaza who have struggled to feed themselves.

Palestinian health official Muneer Alboursh confirmed the strike, and an aid worker in Gaza confirmed that three killed were workers with the WCK. The aid worker spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak with the media.

At Nasser Hospital in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, a woman held up an employee badge bearing the WCK logo, the word “contractor” and the name of a man said to have been killed in the strike. Belongings — burned phones, a watch and stickers with the WCK logo — lay splayed on the hospital floor.

Nazmi Ahmed said his nephew worked for WCK for the past year. He said he was driving to the charity's kitchens and warehouses.

“Today, he went out as usual to work ... and was targeted without prior warning and without any reason,” Ahmed said.

In April, a strike on a WCK aid convoy killed seven workers — three British citizens, Polish and Australian nationals, a Canadian-American dual national and a Palestinian. The Israeli military called the strike a mistake.

That strike prompted an international outcry and the brief suspension of aid to Gaza by several aid groups, including WCK. Another Palestinian WCK worker was killed in August by shrapnel from an Israeli airstrike, the group said.

Another Israeli airstrike Saturday hit a car near a food distribution point in Khan Younis, killing 13 people including children gathering to receive aid. Nasser hospital in Khan Younis received the bodies.

The war in Gaza was triggered by Hamas’ October 2023 attack that killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took some 250 hostage. Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed more than 44,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials, who do not distinguish between civilians and combatants in their count but say more than half the dead were women and children.