A court in Algiers sentenced Wednesday a prominent businessman to jail on corruption charges.
Ahmed Mazouz, owner of a food company, is close to former premiers Ahmed Ouyahia and Abdelmalek Sellal, who are in prison on similar charges.
The sentence was issued following an investigation carried out by the gendarmerie’s judicial police involving the financing of a factory on the assembly of Japanese-made cars.
Investigations proved that Mazouz obtained concessions and loans from government banks to finance the project with Sellal’s intervention first between 2012 and 2017, and then Ouyahia from 2017 till 2019.
The probe included projects run by members of Sellal and top Algerian businessman Ali Haddad’s families, judicial sources informed of the investigation told Asharq Al-Awsat.
Activists in the opposition movement confirmed Wednesday that the gendarmerie has also arrested Sellal’s son for his relationship with Mazouz.
Six of the country’s top businessmen and members of their families have been jailed. All of whom are close to former President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, his imprisoned brother Said Bouteflika and Ouyahia and Sellal.
Most of them had made major financial contributions to Bouteflika’s election campaigns in return for lucrative deals that allowed them to amass huge wealth.
The judiciary has been clamping down on suspects in corruption cases after clear instructions from Army Commander General Gaed Salah.
Salah has recently stressed in a statement that the future president will not tolerate corruption, sparking controversy that the army chief would exert control over the country’s next head of state.
Meanwhile, the authorities were pressed on Wednesday to release war of liberation icon Lakhdar Bouregaa, who was imprisoned on charges of “contributing to weakening the army’s morale” and “insulting authorities.”
Colonel Youcef al-Khatib, one of the most prominent war of liberation figures, called for releasing Bouregaa, who led battles under his supervision.
In response to a campaign launched by state television against Bouregaa, Khatib said he joined the revolution in 1956 after leaving compulsory conscription.
Bouregaa was part of the first regiments to spread the revolution and had several responsibilities as the officer of the famous Zubair battalion, which carried out several heroic operations against the French army, Khatib added.
