Algerian businessman Ali Haddad, a former omnipotent boss, linked to the ousted former president Abdelaziz Bouteflika, returned to court in Algiers on Sunday for a new corruption trial.
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Several former senior leaders are also being prosecuted in the same case, including two former Prime Ministers of Bouteflika - Ahmed Ouyahia and Abdelmalek Sellal - as well as former ministers. But the trial was suspended in the afternoon following the sudden death of the brother and lawyer of Ahmed Ouyahia, Me Laifa Ouyahia, who succumbed to heart disease after the morning hearing, according to lawyers for the defense. Ahmed Ouyahia was allowed to attend his brother's funeral. The trial will resume on Tuesday, according to local media.
Ex-leader of the main Algerian employers' organization, the Forum of business leaders (FCE), Ali Haddad, imprisoned since March 2019, is being prosecuted for "obtaining privileges, advantages and public contracts in violation of the law, squandering of public funds, abuse of office, conflict of interest and corruption in the conclusion of public contracts ” .
Considered one of the main financiers of Abdelaziz Bouteflika's last election campaigns, he was sentenced on appeal at the end of March to four years in prison after another trial for corruption. Also accused in the trial, Ahmed Ouyahia and Abdelmalek Sellal were given 15 and 12 years in prison, respectively.
Founder and CEO of ETRHB, the first private construction company in Algeria and recipient of gigantic public contracts, Ali Haddad is seen as a symbol of the troubled links between certain business circles and the entourage of Abdelaziz Bouteflika, forced to resign in April 2019, after 20 years in power, by an unprecedented protest movement.
President of the FCE from 2014 to March 2019, Ali Haddad was arrested at a border post with Tunisia in possession of two passports. He was sentenced in June 2019 to six months in prison for illegal possession of the two travel documents.
The extensive corruption and nepotism investigations launched after Bouteflika's fall led to a series of trials.
On Thursday, the justice system demanded heavy prison terms against a boss of the automobile sector and former senior political officials tried for embezzlement affecting this sector.
The prosecution demanded 15 years in prison against Mourad Oumli, CEO of the automotive group Sovac, distributor of Volkswagen vehicles and partner of the German giant in an assembly plant in Algeria. He asked for the same sentence for Ahmed Ouyahia, also accused in this scandal, and 20 years in prison in absentia against the former Minister of Industry Abdeslam Bouchouareb, on the run. The verdict is expected on Wednesday.