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The economic and financial pole of the Sidi M’hamed court in Algiers postponed the examination of the so -called “ANEP 2” case (National Editing and Advertising Agency) to September 23. Thirteen people are involved in this case, prosecuted for corruption acts.
According to judicial sources, this postponement intervened at the request of the defense. The trial was postponed for the first time. All defendants were present during the Tuesday session.
Among the main accused are two former Ministers of Communication, Djamel Kaouane and Hamid Grine, as well as the former director general of the National Editing and Advertising Agency (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 national 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, as well as favoritism in the choice of press securities benefiting from public advertising.
The ex-DG of ANEP is notably accused of having largely granted institutional and public advertising to a daily life led by his wife, according to the conclusions of preliminary investigations. According to the same sources, this situation allowed this young media to garner several billion cents after a few years.
The survey would have highlighted serious irregularities in management within the agency, whose damage could rise to several tens of billions of cents.
According to lawyers linked to this file, the trial should deliver the last secrets of this case linked to the management of a large agency, shaken by complex management and irregularities, as evidenced by the recent case called ANEP 1, examined last June, in which another former Minister of Youth and Sports and ex-DG of ANEP, Abdelkader Khomri, had been heavily condemned for the same reasons corruption and dilapidation of public funds.
The defendants are continued on the basis of the criminal provisions of law n ° 06-01 of February 20, 2006 relating to the prevention and the fight against corruption, which constitutes the main legal framework to qualify and sanction acts of corruption in Algeria.