Prime Minister of Bouteflika twice, between 2012 and 2017, Abdelmalek Sellal should not however remain more than twelve years in detention.
This November 29, it took his defense to repeat the verdict three times for the former Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal to realize that he has just been acquitted for the first time by the Algerian justice in a case of corruption and ‘granting of undue advantages.
The day before, in his cell, he certainly did not expect such an outcome, while he was sentenced to prison terms at the end of each of his trials for various charges: abuse of office , corruption, embezzlement in the conclusion of public contracts and granting of undue advantages to businessmen close to ex-president Abdelaziz Bouteflika.
Since his placement in preventive detention on June 13, 2019, at the request of the Supreme Court, the former Prime Minister (2012-2017) has to date recorded around twenty appearances before the examining magistrate and six trials for corruption, for a cumulative sentence of 39 years in prison.
The 73-year-old former senior official will have to serve at least 12 years in prison, Algerian law only providing for the execution of the heaviest sentence pronounced after exhaustion of appeal procedures.
€ 975 million
In the case for which he was acquitted, Abdelmalek Sellal appeared for having signed in December 2015 an exemption authorizing the resumption of works, eleven years after their launch, of a five-star hotel of 14 floors in the city center of Bejaïa at an estimated cost of $ 4 million.
ABDELMALEK SELLAL SENTENCED TO 12 YEARS IN PRISON IN AUTO ASSEMBLY PLANT CASE
The former Prime Minister had thus overruled the opposition of the civil protection and the Energy Department of this wilaya who warned against the proximity of the building with a pipeline plunging into the terminal of the oil port of the city.
According to his chief of staff at the time Mustapha Rahiel, sentenced him to three years in prison in this affair, “the intervention of the prime minister in this local project at the time was rather part of the facilities granted to investors. to create new jobs ”.
The court of Sidi M’hamed was not convinced by the evidence justifying the charges against Sellal during the investigation and therefore pronounced his acquittal.
In January 2021, Abdelmalek Sellal was sentenced to twelve years in prison in the case of the automobile assembly factories. The former Prime Minister was accused of having granted financial and tax advantages to businessmen then close to power for the construction of these units. A project which will have cost the Public Treasury a trifle of 128 billion dinars (975 million euros), according to official figures.
In the second part of this trial, the former prime minister was prosecuted as Boutefilka’s campaign manager. Seven billion dinars (52 million euros), as well as twenty cash vouchers were recovered by the security services.
According to the investigation, the presidential clan would have engaged in a real racket of businessmen to finance the campaign for the fifth term of Bouteflika.
Haddad, Tahkout and the others
In the case of the former president of the Forum of business leaders, Ali Haddad, prosecuted for squandering public funds and corruption in the conclusion of public contracts, Sellal was also sentenced to 12 years in prison.
Sellal appeared as an accused in the trial of businessman Mahieddine Tahkout , sued for corruption and the perception of undue advantages granted by former senior state officials, including a bank loan of 27 billion dinars (171.7 million euros) for the creation of its Hyundai car assembly plant. The former Prime Minister was sentenced in this case, in January 2021, to a five-year prison term.
Abdelmalek Sellal was also found guilty of complicity with Hamid Melzi, former Director-General of the “Sahel” state residence, nicknamed “the black box” of the Bouteflika regime, and sentenced for “money laundering and fund transfers. from criminal income ”and“ incitement of officials to abuse their office ”, as well as“ conclusion of contracts outside the regulations in force ”.
I WORKED FOR 46 YEARS ON BEHALF OF THE STATE, IT’S NORMAL TO HAVE A HOUSE AND A CAR ”, HE JUSTIFIED HIMSELF IN TRYING TO RAISE AWARENESS IN THE COURT
Its involvement is particularly pointed in the conclusion of a contract for the acquisition of 380 chalets intended for the residents of the Club des Pins by favoring a Chinese company, yet ranked third in the call for tenders. The damage caused to the Public Treasury is of the order of 3 billion dinars (19 million euros). Abdelmalek Sellal was sentenced in September, in this case, to five years in prison.
Difficulty expressing oneself
Finally, on November 30, 2020, the former Prime Minister was sentenced to five more years in prison for “granting unjustified privileges” to a subsidiary of the Condor group causing financial damage to the State in the order of 140 million. dinars. In all, Abdelmalek Sellal was therefore sentenced to 39 years in prison.
Over the course of the three-year uninterrupted hearings, the former right-hand man of Abdelaziz Bouteflika seemed increasingly emaciated, floating in his invariably dark costumes.
Sometimes he proclaimed with a feverish voice that he was only the coordinator of the government’s action for the proper execution of the presidential program, claiming the presence at the bar of ex-president Bouteflika, sometimes he prayed to the magistrate to reconsider his judgment and “let him go home, die quietly”. He often had difficulty expressing himself and repeatedly asked for permission not to be present at the hearing.
In addition to the prison sentences, Abdelmalek Sellal was fined each time – between 1 million and 8 million dinars -, along with the confiscation of all his property. During his appearance in the context of Hamid Melzi’s trial, he begged the judge to lift the seizure on his house and on his sick wife’s account. “I worked for 46 years on behalf of the State, it is normal to have a house and a car”, he justified himself to try to sensitize the court.
