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This is undoubtedly one of the most important corruption files of the past two years. The trial of the Imetal affair will finally be opened next Monday by the criminal, economic and financial pole at the Sidi M’hamed court in Algiers.
Imetal is a public group of metallurgical, steel and metal industries with several thirteen subsidiaries. This case is already qualified as a serious scandal of corruption that affected one of the country’s strategic industrial sectors.
Twenty-five people are accused in this case. They will have to respond to the judges to several heavy accusations of scandals linked to the management of this public group. These include the embezzlement of public funds, irregularities in financial management, markets concluded in violation of the regulations, contracts with entities and third parties contrary to the law, affected by the sensitive facilities of the El Hadjar complex and repeated judgments of production causing significant financial loss.
In addition to these accusations, the accused are prosecuted for other crimes, money laundering and criminal income, granting unjustified advantages during signatures of public contracts, abuse of function and concealment of the origin of goods.
According to the instruction, it is a real looting in the subsidiaries of the El Hadjar complex, in particular in the purchases of ferrous and non -ferrous waste and the import of coal, as well as suspicious transactions for the rental of equipment, bus and trucks.
How did the case break out? It is a detailed report of the facts which is at the origin of the start of the investigation, he reached the prosecution and revealed facts of corruption and embezzlement in the management of this group, in particular to the steel complex of El Hadjar and the National Recovery Society.
The central brigade for the fight against economic and financial crime then launched an investigation which uncovered a plan to destroy large economic enterprises, the existence of mafia networks which revolve around large public enterprises, embezzlement and fraudulent attributions of the markets. Other embezzlement and overruns were discovered during this investigation, involving other executives and officials of this group.
It should be noted that the CEO of Imetal, who was in pre -trial detention in March 2023, died in prison last July. However, five other senior group officials are affected, including the CEO of the Sider group. In all, they are 17 individuals, joined by eight other accomplices, who are accused of having trained a network specialized in the exercise of blackmail and pressures to divert public contracts. Seized documents reveal serious opaque transactions involving foreign intermediaries.
It must be said that for years, unions of the El Hadjar complex and the Imetal group have not stopped denouncing dysfunctions in the management of the whole sector, which caused the loss of thousands of jobs and billions of dinars.
The El Hadjar industrial complex, once flagship of the Algerian industry, saw its production fall by almost a third due to this mismanagement and embezzlement and caused a colossal prejudice to the public treasury.
The trial which opened yesterday promises new revelations on illegal corruption practices and certainly twists and turns in this case which has not yet delivered all its secrets, in particular its ramifications with foreign maffieux networks.