Algiers’ Misdemeanor Court postponed until next week corruption trial of three officials of the former regime, as well as former Prime Ministers Ahmed Ouyahia and Abdelmalek Sellal.
Lawyers told Asharq Al-Awsat that Sidi Mohamed Magistrate Court postponed the case of businessman Ali Haddad until June 21, at the request of his defense team.
Haddad, 56, was sentenced to 7 years in prison, in a corruption case concerning his contracting company.
The public prosecution also charged several former senior government officials over the same case, including Ouyahia, Sellal, and former Minister of Industry Abdeslam Bouchouareb, who was tried in absentia and has an international arrest warrant issued against him.
The three officials are accused of undue advantage, squandering public funds, and exploiting the government job for personal interests.
Ex-premier Ouyahia was sentenced to 15 years in jail and former PM Sellal received a 12-year sentence. Bouchouareb received 20 years in absentia in the “car assembly” case and over funding the fifth electoral campaign of former President Abdelaziz Bouteflika.
The court also postponed the case of businessman Mahieddine Tahkout to June 22. Tahkout and his son have been in pretrial detention for a year.
On Wednesday, the court will consider the case of Murad Alami who is accused of using bank loans in undisclosed projects and transferring money outside the country.
Meanwhile, lawyers and human rights activists waited for the presentation of the journalist Fodil Boumala and political activist Hakim Addad before Casablanca Court.
The two men spent 24 hours in custody after their arrest on Sunday, but the reasons for their arrest were not immediately declared. Close sources believed they were detained for their support of anti-regime protests.
Algerian authorities view their support as an encouragement to spread chaos in the country, even though the constitution guarantees the right to protest.
Boumala was acquitted last month of the charge of weakening the army’s morale after spending five months in pretrial detention. However, the prosecution appealed the verdict and was expected to respond to the same charge before the Court of Appeal in June.
Addad left the pretrial detention last February on a conditional release and he is waiting for his trial on charges of harming national unity. He is a former member of the Socialist Forces Front, and a former head of a youthful opposition organization.
