The party of Algerian Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia said that Justice Minister Tayeb Louh, close to the presidency, offended him, hinting that Louh has intentions to become a prime minister. Louh accused Ouyahia of standing behind the imprisonment of several officials in government companies for corruption charges, in mid-nineties.
Algeria's Rally for National Democracy (RND) issued a statement Tuesday defending its secretary general Ouyahia. It revealed that some are offending Ouyahia in an indication of the file related to imprisoning cadres.
The statement continued that what has been said by Louh discloses his intention to take the position of Ouyahia – it added that the prime minister wasn’t in charge of the justice sector when some cadres were imprisoned in mid-nineties, noting that they were dozens and not thousands, unlike what was said by the minister of justice.
Louh implicitly accused Ouyahia in standing behind putting thousands of cadres in prison because of corruption suspicions.
RND added that Ouyahia took two procedures when he became a minister of justice in 2000: the first was ordering all judicial bodies to prevent the intervention of the ministry in the judiciary affairs, and the second amending a law for penal procedures to ban accusing public cadres of corruption without an official complaint from the relevant party.
Observers see this dispute between the PM and the minister is unprecedented.
