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The Bouchouareb case…
As a reminder, the former Minister of Industry and Mines, Abdeslam Bouchouareb, is held responsible for the excesses committed in the automobile assembly file in Algeria. He was convicted in several corruption cases. In July 2020, in the trial of Mahieddine Tahkout, the Sidi M’hamed court in Algiers handed down a 20-year prison sentence in absentia against Abdeslam Bouchouareb, accompanied by a fine of 2,000,000 DA. In the trial of the former boss of the Forum of Business Leaders (FCE), Ali Haddad, Abdeslam Bouchouareb was sentenced in absentia to 20 years in prison and a fine of one million DA.
In the Sovac case, a sentence of 20 years in prison was handed down against Abdeslam Bouchouareb. He was prosecuted for “granting undue advantages”, “abuse of office”, “willful squandering of public funds”, “money laundering” and “false declaration”. Algeria has submitted fifty-one letters rogatory to French justice, without obtaining a single response. Algeria has requested the extradition of individuals convicted of theft, squandering and embezzlement of public funds, as well as corruption, without obtaining satisfaction. By such failings, the French authorities concerned designate themselves as complicit in all these illegal practices and behaviors. Because France opposed the process of recovery of goods and funds looted and embezzled by members of the ‘issaba’, while many European countries have shown their willingness to return the embezzled funds to the people.
We know that the Algerian Government has taken note of the decision of the French courts to reject the request for extradition of Abdeslam Bouchouareb, convicted by the Algerian courts in multiple cases of corruption, embezzlement and influence peddling causing considerable losses to the Algerian Treasury, noting the absence of French cooperation. A press release from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the National Community Abroad and African Affairs then noted that “without prejudice to the recourse to other legal remedies still possible, the Algerian Government seizes this opportunity to note the total absence of cooperation from the French Government in matters of mutual legal assistance despite the existence of numerous international and bilateral legal instruments provided for this purpose”, The same source underlined that “in the context of its efforts aimed at recovering all the wealth from which it was robbed, Algeria systematically encountered and continues to encounter unjustified and inexplicable procrastination and procrastination on the part of the French side which resulted in a total absence of responses to twenty-five letters rogatory introduced by Algeria.
THERE