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Algerian Judiciary Jails Two Ex-Ministers on Corruption Charges

Former Algerian Finance Minister Mohamed Loukal (Finance Ministry)
Former Algerian Finance Minister Mohamed Loukal (Finance Ministry)
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Algerian Judiciary Jails Two Ex-Ministers on Corruption Charges

Former Algerian Finance Minister Mohamed Loukal (Finance Ministry)
Former Algerian Finance Minister Mohamed Loukal (Finance Ministry)

A court in Algiers sentenced on Wednesday two former ministers to jail on corruption charges.

Sidi M'hamed Court of Algiers sentenced former Minister of Finance Mohamed Loukal to six years in prison and a fine in Algerian dinar and ordered lifting seizure on all his seized assets upon the examining magistrate’s order.

The court sentenced in absentia the fugitive, A.A., to 10 years in prison and a fine. It issued a warrant for his arrest and ordered seizing all his assets.

On August 3, the court’s public prosecutor ordered sentencing Loukal to 10 years in prison and a three million dinar fine, as well as seizing all his assets and bank accounts.

The verdicts issued against other convicts ranged between five and 10-year prison sentences and the seizure of all their assets, the local daily Echorouk reported.

The case was opened on December 2, 2018 when a letter signed on behalf of the managers of the Property Directorate at the General Directorate of the Exterior Bank of Algeria (BEA) addressed the anti-corruption judicial police.

The letter stated that Loukal received 30 billion centimes of bribery, in complicity with a number of the bank’s executives.

The court also charged Loukal of exploiting his position, squandering public funds, and concluding a deal in violation of legislative and regulatory provisions to grant unjustified privileges to others.

He was further accused of illegally acquiring interests from contracts signed by institutions, abuse of power, conflict of interest, as well as money laundering by transferring or concealing property or disguising its illegal source.

All these are among the acts stipulated and punished by the provisions of the anti-corruption law.

The same court also sentenced former minister of Solidarity Djamel Ould Abbes to three years in prison, with a fine of one million dinars and seizing all his assets.

He was acquitted of the misdemeanor of exploiting his position and was ordered to pay two million dinars to the public treasury and the Ministry of Solidarity.

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Israel’s Retaliatory Responses to Houthis Must Begin by Drawing Intelligence Plan

A person inspects damage at the site where a projectile fired from Yemen landed in Tel Aviv on December 21, 2024 (EPA)
A person inspects damage at the site where a projectile fired from Yemen landed in Tel Aviv on December 21, 2024 (EPA)
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Israel’s Retaliatory Responses to Houthis Must Begin by Drawing Intelligence Plan

A person inspects damage at the site where a projectile fired from Yemen landed in Tel Aviv on December 21, 2024 (EPA)
A person inspects damage at the site where a projectile fired from Yemen landed in Tel Aviv on December 21, 2024 (EPA)

Israel is considering options to respond to repeated attacks fired from Yemen in the past few days, the latest of which was a Houthi missile strike that injured more than a dozen people in Tel Aviv.
But military experts say Israel should first consider an intelligence plan for confronting the new front after it faced significant difficulties in both defending against and responding to the Houthi attacks.
On Saturday morning, Houthis launched a missile that triggered sirens throughout central Israel at 3:44 am. It was the second attack since Thursday.
Israel's military said the projectile landed in Tel Aviv's southern Jaffa area, adding that attempts to intercept a missile from Yemen failed.
“The incident is still being thoroughly investigated,” the army said, adding that following initial investigations by the Israeli Air Force and Home Front Command, “some of the conclusions have already been implemented, both regarding interception and early warning.”
Israeli military experts say the recent Houthi attacks have revealed serious security gaps in Israel's air defense systems.
“The pressing question now is why none of the other of Israel’s air defense layers managed to intercept the warhead,” wrote Yedioth Ahronoth's Ron Ben-Yishai. “The likely explanation is the late detection and the flat trajectory, which prevented the operation of all available defense apparatus.”
He said these incidents might expose a critical vulnerability in the army’s air defense system protecting Israel’s civilian and military home front.
According to Ben-Yishai, two main reasons might explain Saturday’s interception failure.
The first is that the missile was launched in a “flattened” ballistic trajectory, possibly from an unexpected direction.
As a result, Israeli defenses may not have identified it in time, leading to its late discovery and insufficient time for interceptors to operate.
He said the second, and more likely scenario is that Iran has developed a maneuverable warhead.
Such a warhead separates from the missile during the final third of its trajectory and maneuvers mid-flight—executing pre-programmed course changes—to hit its designated target, he wrote.
And while Israel has launched initial investigations into the failure of Israeli defense systems to intercept the missiles, it is now examining the nature, date and location of its response.
When Houthis launched their first missile attack on Israel last Thursday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned them, saying, “The Houthis will learn the hard way.”
But Israeli political analyst Avi Ashkenazi wrote in the Maariv newspaper that Israel should look at reality with open eyes and say out loud that it cannot deal with the Houthi threat from Yemen, and has failed to face them.
Last Thursday, 14 Israeli Air Force fighter jets, alongside refuelers and spy planes, flew some 2,000 kilometers and dropped over 60 munitions on Houthi “military targets” along Yemen’s western coast and near the capital Sanaa.
The targets included fuel and oil depots, two power stations, and eight tugboats used at the Houthi-controlled ports.
But the Maariv newspaper warned about the increasing involvement of Iran in supporting the Houthi forces.
“Iran has invested more in the Houthis in recent weeks following the collapse of the Shiite axis, making the Houthi movement a leader of this axis,” the newspaper noted.
Underscoring the failures of Israel’s air defense systems, Maariv said the “Arrow” missile defense system, Israel's main line of defense against ballistic missiles, had failed four times in a row to intercept missiles, including three launched from Yemen and one from Lebanon.
Yedioth Ahronoth's Ben-Yishai also warned that the threat posed by maneuvering warheads on Iran's heavy, long-range missiles would become existential for Israel should Iran succeed in developing nuclear warheads for these missiles.
Meanwhile, Israel’s Channel 12 said that in recent months, the Middle East has changed beyond recognition.
The channel said that for the first time in more than half a century, a direct and threat-free air corridor has been opened to Iran through the Middle East. Israel will benefit from this corridor to launch almost daily attacks on the border crossings between Syria and Lebanon, it said.
Channel 12 also reported that according to the Israeli military, the new threat-free corridor will help Israel launch a future attack on Iran's nuclear facilities.
“From Israel's perspective, the fall of the Assad regime and the collapse of the Iranian ring of fire are changing the balance of power in the Middle East,” the report added.