A seven-year prison sentence was requested Monday (October 11th) against Saïd Bouteflika, the younger brother of the late ex-Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, implicated with other former officials in corruption cases, said one of the officials. his lawyers at AFP.
“
There is nothing in the file.
Only statements.
It's an empty folder.
It is a political and not a judicial file,
”denounced Me Salim Hadjouti, regretting that the prosecution required“
seven years in prison
”against his client, a former presidential adviser who became all-powerful because of of his brother's illness.
Read also Algeria: the discreet death of Abdelaziz Bouteflika
The prosecution also requested, according to the same source, 10 years firm against Tayeb Louh, former Minister of Justice, seven years against Ali Haddad, former leader of Algerian employers, and sentences of three to seven years against the other co-accused. , all tried since Sunday by the court of Dar El Beïda, in the eastern suburbs of Algiers.
Saïd 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
”.
The accused still in prison
Saïd Bouteflika, 63, 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 authority of the State and of the army
”. On January 2, 2021, a military appeal court had acquitted him, but being subject to a committal warrant for “
trading in influence
”, he was transferred from a military prison to a civilian prison.
Since the forced resignation at the beginning of April 2019 of Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who died in September, under the pressure of the demonstrations of Hirak and the army, the Algerian justice placed in preventive detention or condemned several former high political leaders as well as powerful men of 'business, in particular for acts of corruption.
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