Algeria: On Wednesday evening, the former Minister of Culture Khalida Toumi left the penitentiary establishment of Kolea, after having benefited from the conditional release procedure.
On July 6, the first criminal chamber of the capital’s Judicial Council signed a 4-year prison sentence against former culture minister Khalida Toumi.
Former minister Khaleda Toumi has been prosecuted in a corruption case involving cultural festivals, the 2009 African Festival, the Islamic Cultural Festival and Algeria, Capital of Arab Culture 2007.
Khalida Toumi and her relatives in court
On June 8, 2022, the former Minister of Culture Khalida Toumi and her relatives appeared before the Algiers Judicial Council, after appealing the preliminary rulings rendered by the economic and financial penal pole.
The programming service has programmed the case of Khalida Toumi and her companions at the level of the first criminal chamber of the same judicial authority headed by Abdel Aziz Ayyad, where she will be represented by the head of the governorate in charge of the celebrations, Ben Blidia Abdel Hamid, and the former director of culture of Tlemcen Hakim Miloud, as the defendants are prosecuted in the case for offenses of exploitation of the function, granting of undue privileges and embezzlement of public funds, in particular during cultural events organized during the period when Khalida Toumi was at the head of the sector, including the event “Tlemcen Capital of Islamic Culture” in 2011 and before that the “African Festival” in 2009, in addition to the event “Algeria Capital of Arab Culture” 2007.
The file also includes 40 witnesses, led by Lakhdar ben Tourki, former director of the National Bureau of Culture and Information, ben Sdira Rachid, Ait Mangalat Hassan, and other officials of the department responsible for the implementation of the programs of demonstration, local officials.
It is a coincidence that Khalida Toumi will be judged on June 8, a date coinciding with the celebration of the national holiday of the artist that Tommy personally drew when she was at the head of the culture sector, which has become to this day a tradition firmly rooted in the cultural scene and an annual meeting where creators from different regions of the country compete and a station that allows you to discover names and submerged talents.
On April 7, the judge of the economic and financial criminal center of Sidi M’hamed signed prison sentences in force against the former Minister of Culture Khalida Toumi and her relatives among the executives of the sector. festivals, pronounced a 4-year prison sentence and 200,000 DA fine, while the judge pronounced a 2-year prison sentence and 200,000 DA fine for Hakim Miloud, the former director of the culture of Tlemcen.
The judge issued a decision to lift the judicial review proceedings against the defendants, as well as to lift the seizure of the real estate represented in an individual house, and a mobile phone, while forcing the defendants to pay compensation for the benefit of the treasury public amounting to 100,000 dinars.
