This Wednesday, September 22, 2021, at the court of Dar El Beida, in Algiers began, the trial of Ali Ghediri continued for “participation in peacetime in an enterprise aimed at weakening the morale of the National People’s Army (NPA)”.
During the hearing of the accused, the bench judge asked him questions about the content of three articles that he had written between 2015 and 2018 and the objective of these contributions, especially as one of them showed an attack on the morale of the military institution. Responding to questions from the judge, Ali Ghediriaffirmed to have evoked in these articles “questions related to the military institution” and to have “respected the duty of reserve envisaged by the law”, considering that “these articles constituted a contribution, in a personal capacity, which reflected his convictions and his perception of the situation in the country”. Regarding the article published on December 25, 2018, in the form of an interview with the daily “El Watan”, Ghediri explained that this interview revolved around “the political crisis of the country and the maneuvers of certain parties aimed at imposing a fifth mandate for President Abdelaziz Bouteflika”, adding that in his interview he was satisfied with “answering the journalist’s questions, no more and no less”, citing passages from the said interview. The judge’s questions focused on the aims of the usurpation by the accused, of a second identity other than his own, and the falsification of an identity card used for his work, as leader of a political party called “Party of Algeria of tomorrow”. The accused admitted after having tried to deny the facts, that he had given 30,000 Da, to an individual to prepare the falsified card for him.
Also, the questions also concerned the nature of the investments made by the accused and through which he established relations with foreign countries, ambassadors accredited in Algeria, and suspicious foreign personalities, insisting on his words, namely, “relations established for economic interest and to conclude transactions in the field of industrial and commercial investment”. Responding to a question about the nature of his relationship with the accused Ali Ghediri, the so-called “KH” said he met him by chance in a restaurant in the capital. A meeting, he continued, followed by other repeated visits by Ghediri to the party’s headquarters in Mohammadia commune, statements contradicting those held by Ghediri in front of the judicial police and according to which it is indeed “KH” who had contacted him and had asked to see him.
Regarding the visit carried out by Ali Ghedir, in the company of the accused in the house of the former Minister of the Interior, the late Nouredine Yazid Zerhouni, “KH” specified that this visit had been carried out within the framework of “Ghediri ‘s candidacy for the presidential election”. The judge also referred to the nature of the work of the accused “KH” who owns more than 20 investment companies, in addition to being the leader of a political party. The accused used red herrings to avoid revealing the real objective of the dual activity. Retired from the ANP, General-Major Ali Ghediri has been in detention since June 2019 for “participation in peacetime in an enterprise aimed at weakening the morale of the Army”.
