Ouverture du procès de l’affaire ANEP 2 – Le Jeune Indépendant

Sidi Mumed court

Unless last minute postponement, it is today that the trial of the so -called ANEP 2 case (National Editing and Advertising Agency) opens by the economic and financial pole of the Sidi M’hamed court in Algiers. The trial comes a few weeks after the closing of the ANEP 1 affair, whose judges’ verdict was severe.

This last case concerned high -ranking officials, including a former Minister of Youth and Sports, Abdelkader Khomri, who were sentenced for facts dating back to 2014 and 2015. They were accused of dilapidation of public funds and abuse of function for personal enrichment.

According to legal sources, the ANEP 2 affair involves 13 people prosecuted for corruption acts. Among the main accused are two former Ministers of Communication, Djamel Kaouane and Hamid Grine, as well as the former Director General of ANEP, Amine Echikr.

Two years ago, a judicial inquiry had been opened with regard to suspicions of corruption and dilapidation of public funds within this state agency responsible for institutional advertising. This survey led, in March 2023, to the pre -trial detention of Kaouane and Echikr, in their capacity as former ANEP directors (between 2008 and 2018). Djamel Kaouane also held the post of Minister of Communication in 2017.

As for Hamid Grine, former minister of the same portfolio, he was placed under judicial supervision with a ban on leaving the territory. Ten other officials related to the public advertising agency are also subject to the same measure.

According to the same sources, the accusations relate to the dilapidation of public funds via the granting of advertising spaces to fictitious or “microscopic” newspapers without editorial or commercial value, abuse of function, favoritism in the choice of press securities benefiting from public advertising. The survey would have highlighted serious irregularities in management within the agency, whose damage could amount to several billion cents.

According to lawyers linked to this file, there is a good chance that this trial is postponed to a later date, due to several parameters but especially the complexity of the files examined.

As a reminder, during the warrant of deposit by the prosecution of the accused in this case in 2023, the public prosecutor at the economic and financial criminal pole disseminated a press release. It is written that “under the provisions of article 11 of the Criminal Code of Procedure, the public prosecutor’s office of the Republic near the economic and financial criminal center brings to the attention of public opinion that following the survey opened by the Regional Service for Judicial Investigations under the General Directorate of Internal Security (DGSI), for acts of corruption and dilapidation of public funds concerning ANEP, To billions, the accused were presented before the prosecution on March 5, 2023 ”.