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Court of Sidi M’hamed
The economic and financial criminal division of the Sidi M’hamed court delivered its verdict this Tuesday in the case of ANEP (National Publishing and Advertising Agency).
The court sentenced former Minister of Communication Djamel Kaouane and former President and CEO of ANEP Amine Chekir to 8 years in prison. Former Minister of Communication Hamid Grine, for his part, was sentenced to 4 years in prison.
Furthermore, the court imposed a 5-year prison sentence on Mr. Chérif, director of communications and advertising within the agency, as well as on L. Amar, general director of the rapid messaging subsidiary under ANEP.
The Court of First Instance sentenced the other co-defendants to 4 and 5 years of imprisonment. Some benefited from the release.
The court also ordered the confiscation of all bank accounts. He sentenced the main accused, Djamel Kaouane and Amine Echikr, to each pay compensation of one million dinars to the public treasury.
In addition, Mr. Chérif and L. Amar will have to pay compensation of 500,000 dinars for the damage caused. While Hamid Grine was ordered to pay 200,000 dinars to the Public Treasury.
Two years ago, a judicial investigation was opened into suspicions of corruption and squandering of public funds within this state agency responsible for institutional advertising. This investigation led, in March 2023, to the pre-trial detention of Kaouane and Echikr, in their capacity as former directors of ANEP (between 2008 and 2018). Djamel Kaouane also served as Minister of Communication in 2017.
As for Hamid Grine, former minister in the same portfolio, he was placed under judicial supervision with a ban on leaving the national territory. Ten other officials linked to the public advertising agency are also subject to the same measure.
According to the same sources, the accusations relate to the squandering of public funds through the granting of advertising space to fictitious or “microscopic” newspapers without editorial or commercial value, abuse of office, as well as favoritism in the choice of press titles benefiting from public advertising.
The former CEO of ANEP is notably accused of having granted extensive institutional and public advertising to a daily newspaper run by his wife, according to the conclusions of preliminary investigations. According to the same sources, this situation allowed this young media to earn several billion cents after a few years.
The investigation would have highlighted serious irregularities in management within the agency, the damage of which could amount to several tens of billions of cents.