Algeria: postponement of the trial of the brother of former president Bouteflika

A corruption trial against Said Bouteflika, the younger brother of former Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, and other former officials, has been postponed by an Algiers court to October 10, reported Sunday. local media.

Read also Algeria: Saïd Bouteflika acquitted on appeal in the "conspiracy" case

Saïd Bouteflika, former adviser to the presidency, Tayeb Louh, former Minister of Justice, and Ali Haddad, former boss of Algerian bosses, were to be tried from Sunday with other co-defendants, by the court of Dar El Beïda, in the eastern suburbs of Algiers.

Saïd Bouteflika's lawyer, Me Miloud Brahimi, asked for the postponement "in view of the psychological conditions in which his client finds himself following the death of his brother" Abdelaziz on September 17.

According to media reports, Mr. Bouteflika, 63, appeared pale and emaciated at the hearing.

The group of lawyers of the co-defendants had also requested the postponement in order to "better study the file" and allow the appearance of all the defendants not detained in this case.

The defense request for release was, however, denied.

Mr. Bouteflika and the other defendants are being prosecuted in particular for “inciting falsification of official documents”, “abuse of office”, “obstructing justice”, “incitement to partiality of the judiciary” and “contempt of court”.

Read also Algeria: Saïd Bouteflika and his co-defendants will be retried

Said Bouteflika was arrested in May 2019 along with three co-accused and sentenced in September of the same year to 15 years' imprisonment in a flash trial before a military court for "conspiracy against the authority of the State and of the army ”. On January 2, 2021, a military appeal court acquitted him. But, being under a warrant of committal for "influence peddling", he had been transferred from a military prison to a civilian prison.

Since the forced resignation of Abdelaziz Bouteflika at the beginning of April 2019 under the pressure of the demonstrations of the pro-democracy movement Hirak and the army, the Algerian justice has placed in preventive detention or sentenced several former influential politicians as well as powerful men of cases, in particular for acts of corruption.