Algeria: new series of convictions for officials of the former Bouteflika regime

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This trial is part of the wave of prosecutions linked to corruption cases, which began following the resignation of the former head of state in April 2019. Of the 17 accused in this trial, 15 were convicted , this Wednesday, to sentences ranging from two to twenty years in prison.

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Twelve years in prison and the seizure of his bank accounts is the sentence pronounced this Thursday in Algiers against Ahmed Ouyahia, a former Prime Minister of Abdelaziz Bouteflika . A conviction in the so-called Sovac trial, named after an automobile group that distributed Volkswagen brand vehicles in Algeria.

The group's CEO, Mourad Oulmi, faces a firm ten-year sentence. Three defendants were tried in absentia. His wife, the former Minister of Industry Abdeslam Bouchouareb and the businessman Amine Djerbou. All three were sentenced to twenty years' imprisonment, with the issuance of international arrest warrants. Two people are relaxed. The accused were prosecuted for corruption, money laundering and the transfer abroad of capital from criminal income and trading in influence.

Ahmed Ouyahia is also on the dock in another corruption trial. That of businessman Ali Haddad, which opened on Sunday, alongside another ex-prime minister, Abdelmalek Sellal . This Wednesday, the prosecutor requested sentences of 15 years in prison against the two former heads of government. The two have already been sentenced in a corruption case linked to the funding of Abdelaziz Bouteflika's campaign, to fifteen and twelve years in prison respectively.

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• Algeria
• Justice

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