An Algerian court on Monday (February 14th) sentenced ex-Energy Minister Chakib Khelil, in office for 10 years under the presidency of Abdelaziz Bouteflika, in absentia to 20 years in prison for corruption, according to Algerian media.
The Sidi M’Hamed court in Algiers sentenced Chakib Khelil to 20 years in prison and a fine of two million dinars (12,500 euros). The former boss of the public hydrocarbon giant Sonatrach, Mohamed Meziane, tried in the same trial was sentenced to five years in prison and a fine of one million dinars (6250 euros). Mohamed Meziane is currently serving a prison sentence in Algeria in connection with another case. During the trial which opened on February 1, the prosecution had requested 20 years in prison for Chakib Khelil and 10 years for Mohamed Meziane. The two former senior officials were prosecuted with other co-defendants for “corruption in the case of the Arzew gas complex (Oran, west)”, “granting of undue privileges”, and “ concluding deals in violation of laws and regulations,” according to the APS news agency.
In 2013, the Algerian justice had issued an international arrest warrant against Chakib Khelil as part of an investigation into the payment of commissions by a subsidiary of the Italian giant ENI for obtaining contracts in Algeria, a scandal which made the subject of several lawsuits in Italy and Algeria. A refugee in the United States, he returned to Algeria in 2016 after the charges against him were dropped before returning abroad when the procedure was relaunched. After Bouteflika’s fall on April 2, 2019, under the pressure of demonstrations by the Hirak protest movement and the army, the justice system launched a series of investigations into the cases in which the men around him were involved.
