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Algeria: Public Prosecution Calls for Life Imprisonment to Main Suspect in Khalifa Bank Case

Members of the Research and Intervention Brigades (BRI) stand guard outside a court during the trial of senior officials including two former prime ministers in Algiers, Algeria December 04, 2019. REUTERS/Ramzi Boudina
Members of the Research and Intervention Brigades (BRI) stand guard outside a court during the trial of senior officials including two former prime ministers in Algiers, Algeria December 04, 2019. REUTERS/Ramzi Boudina
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Algeria: Public Prosecution Calls for Life Imprisonment to Main Suspect in Khalifa Bank Case

Members of the Research and Intervention Brigades (BRI) stand guard outside a court during the trial of senior officials including two former prime ministers in Algiers, Algeria December 04, 2019. REUTERS/Ramzi Boudina
Members of the Research and Intervention Brigades (BRI) stand guard outside a court during the trial of senior officials including two former prime ministers in Algiers, Algeria December 04, 2019. REUTERS/Ramzi Boudina

Algerian Prosecutor General of the Criminal Court at the Blida Judicial Council Zuhair Talbi on Wednesday sought life imprisonment against the main defendant Abdelmoumène Khalifa, Former Chief Executive Director of Khalifa Complex, tried in the Al-Khalifa Bank case.

The general prosecutor’s office also requested the confiscation of all his property.

Khalifa and other defendants are prosecuted on charges of “constitution of criminal association”, “falsification of official documents and use of forgery”, “meeting theft, fraud, breach of trust and corruption”, “falsification of bank documents”, and “fraudulent bankruptcy”.

However, he denied all charges, claiming that he has been the victim “of a conspiracy orchestrated with the complicity of the old system”.

In 2015, Khalifa was sentenced to 18 years in prison, accompanied by a fine of DA1 million with confiscation of all of his property. Also, back in 2007, he received a life-imprisonment sentence in absentia.

Top political, media, financial, and sports figures are also involved in this case.

The collapse of Khalifa Group in 2003 and the bankruptcy of Khalifa Bank has caused the state and depositors financial losses estimated at $5 billion.

The hearing continues with the hearing of the rest of the non-detained defendants, who all appeared in court, in addition to the lead defendant Abdelmoumène Khelifa, ex-CEO of the Khalifa Group, currently in detention.

Created in 1998, the Khalifa bank was headed by Ali Kaci. The Board of Directors subsequently entrusted the chairmanship of the Group to Abdelmoumène Khalifa, who managed it as Chairman and CEO from 1999 to 2003.

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Arab World

UN Races to Feed One Million Gazans after Truce

People walk past trucks loaded with aid waiting to cross into Gaza from the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing on January 19, 2025. (AFP)
People walk past trucks loaded with aid waiting to cross into Gaza from the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing on January 19, 2025. (AFP)
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UN Races to Feed One Million Gazans after Truce

People walk past trucks loaded with aid waiting to cross into Gaza from the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing on January 19, 2025. (AFP)
People walk past trucks loaded with aid waiting to cross into Gaza from the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing on January 19, 2025. (AFP)

The UN's World Food Program said Sunday it was moving full throttle to get food to as many Gazans as possible after border crossings reopened as part of a long-awaited ceasefire deal.

"We're trying to reach a million people within the shortest possible time," the WFP's Deputy Executive Director Carl Skau told AFP, as the Rome-based UN agency's trucks began rolling into the strip.

"We're moving in with wheat flour, ready to eat meals, and we will be working all fronts trying to restock the bakeries," Skau said, adding the agency would attempt to provide nutritional supplements to the most malnourished.

An initial 42-day truce between Israel and Hamas is meant to enable a surge of sorely needed humanitarian aid into the Palestinian territory after 15 months of war.

"The agreement is for 600 trucks a day... All the crossings will be open," Skau said.

The first WFP trucks entered Gaza through the Kerem Shalom crossing in the south and through the Zikim crossing in the north, the agency said in a statement, as it began trying to pull "the war-ravaged territory back from starvation".

"We have 150 trucks lined up for every day for the next at least 20 days," Skau said, adding that the WFP was "hopeful that the border crossings will be open and efficient".

There needs to be "an environment inside (Gaza) that is secure enough for our teams to move around," so that food "does not just get over the border but also gets into the hands of the people".

"It seems so far that things have been working relatively well.... We need to now sustain that over several days over weeks," he said.

Before the ceasefire came into effect, WFP was operating just five out of the 20 bakeries it partners with due to dwindling supplies of fuel and flour, as well as insecurity in northern Gaza.

"We're hoping that we will be up and running on all those bakeries as soon as possible," Skau said, stressing that it was "one of our top priorities" to get bread to "tens of thousands of people each day".

"It also has a psychological effect to be able to put warm bread into the hands of the people".

WFP also wants to "get the private sector and commercial goods in there as soon as possible," he said.

That would mean the UN agency could replace ready meals with vouchers and cash for people to buy their own food "to bring back some dignity" and allow them "frankly to start rebuilding their lives".

WFP said in a statement that it has enough food pre-positioned along the borders -- and on its way to Gaza -- to feed over a million people for three months.

Vast areas of Gaza have been devastated by Israel's retaliatory assault on the territory after the October 7 Hamas attack last year sparked the war.

The attack, the deadliest in Israel's history, resulted in the deaths of 1,210 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Israel's retaliatory campaign has killed at least 46,913 people, also mostly civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory's health ministry that the United Nations considers reliable.