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AFP
Algiers
An Algerian appeals court has upheld sentences of over ten years in prison for two former prime ministers under ex-president Abdelaziz Bouteflika following an unprecedented corruption trial, a judicial source said Wednesday.
The Algiers court sentenced Ahmed Ouyahia and Abdelmalek Sellal to 15 and 12 years jail time respectively, confirming a ruling by a lower court on December 10 last year.
The two premiers had served under president Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who was forced to resign in April last year by enormous street protests against his bid for a fifth term in office.
They were the first former prime ministers to be put on trial since Algeria’s independence from France in 1962.
“This verdict on appeal is still a political ruling,” Sellal’s lawyer Mourad Khader told AFP.
They now have eight days to appeal to the Supreme Court.
Scandals within Algeria’s auto industry -- including murky funding for Bouteflika’s aborted re-election bid -- were at the heart of the case, which also resulted in prison terms for other former ministers and businessmen close to the ex-president’s regime.
Financing for the longtime leader’s campaign had “cost the treasury an estimated 110 billion dinars (more than to $890 million)”, the prosecutor said.
The auto industry scandal led to the loss of an estimated 128 billion dinars of public funds, according to official figures.
Algiers
An Algerian appeals court has upheld sentences of over ten years in prison for two former prime ministers under ex-president Abdelaziz Bouteflika following an unprecedented corruption trial, a judicial source said Wednesday.
The Algiers court sentenced Ahmed Ouyahia and Abdelmalek Sellal to 15 and 12 years jail time respectively, confirming a ruling by a lower court on December 10 last year.
The two premiers had served under president Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who was forced to resign in April last year by enormous street protests against his bid for a fifth term in office.
They were the first former prime ministers to be put on trial since Algeria’s independence from France in 1962.
“This verdict on appeal is still a political ruling,” Sellal’s lawyer Mourad Khader told AFP.
They now have eight days to appeal to the Supreme Court.
Scandals within Algeria’s auto industry -- including murky funding for Bouteflika’s aborted re-election bid -- were at the heart of the case, which also resulted in prison terms for other former ministers and businessmen close to the ex-president’s regime.
Financing for the longtime leader’s campaign had “cost the treasury an estimated 110 billion dinars (more than to $890 million)”, the prosecutor said.
The auto industry scandal led to the loss of an estimated 128 billion dinars of public funds, according to official figures.
