To lower the curtain, late in the day last Tuesday, on the debates of the Sonatrach appeal trial before the criminal chamber near the court of Algiers and the fate of the 37 defendants, including four international oil companies, the Italian Saipem, the Canadian SLC-Lavalin, British Petrofac INC and Japanese JGC, will be decided next Sunday.
Among the latter, three former ministers: Chakib Khelil, of Energy, Mohamed Bedjaoui, of Foreign Affairs, the two on the run, and Amar Ghoul, of Public Works, as well as Mohamed Meziane and Abdelmoumène Ould Kaddour (prosecuted as director General of BRC), former CEO of Sonatrach, Réda Hamech, his chief of staff, on the run, Noureddine Bouterfa, former Minister of Energy (prosecuted as former CEO of Sonelgaz), Abdelhamid Zerguine, former CEO of Sonatrach ( continued as head of the engineering and development division), Samy Michel, former director of the engineering and development division, and several senior executives of the company, particularly of the Upstream activity.
Supposed to enlighten the magistrates on the flaws in the procedures for awarding contracts linked to the studies of the projects of Gassi Touil, Rhourd Ennous, the hearings made it more complicated to understand the concept of competitive feed (presentation of a study of the project), before awarding the EPC construction contract (turnkey).
The representatives of the four foreign companies tried to explain in detail these studies on the basis of which the decision to award the EPC construction contract was based, while mentioning financial losses, in particular for Petrofac and Saipem.
The representatives of JGC, beneficiaries of the Gassi Touil market (now active), declared themselves “surprised” to see their status “switch from witnesses to accused” without them “being informed”. They claim to have obtained the contract “within the framework of the law”, and carried it out “on time”.
As for the projects granted to BRC, Ould Kaddour explains that they were “assigned by Sonatrach to a company in which it is a 50% shareholder and represented on the board of directors with five seats”.
He recognizes that the projects carried out for the benefit of Sonatrach (parking, swimming pool, guest villas, training centers, etc.) are not the “template” of BRC which does engineering and construction, “but when Sonatrach seizes us, we cannot refuse”. The “overbillings”, he explains them by “the quality of the work and the materials used”.
Khellil and the law on hydrocarbons
In his answers to the judges, Zerguine casts doubt on the awarding of these contracts to BRC, on “instruction”, he says, from the Minister of Energy and then evokes his “illegitimate and unexplained dismissal” from his post in 2006.
But the revelations came first from Amar Ghoul, involved in a Sonatrach file, while the facts concerning him are linked to the granting of a section of the East-West highway to the Chinese company Citic- CSC which, according to the investigation, was done on the intervention of the arms dealer Pierre Falcon. Facts earned him a 10-year prison sentence, in the first instance. Very angry, he tried to shed light on the enigmatic Falcon and his visit to Algeria. He rejects the accusation arguing that Falcon’s visit took place in January 2005 and the decision to launch the “highway project was announced in May 2005”.
He explains: “He came in a plane with a delegation of 13 soldiers. Is the Department of Public Works selling guns for Falcon to visit? Falcon came on a military mission. He was received at the Ministry of Defence, in the presence of the Minister of Foreign Affairs and senior army officials. He was invited by the President of the Constitutional Council, supported by the Constitutional Council which obtained his visa.
He even shows a document “faxed by the crew to the civil aviation department”, before the plane landed, in which it is written “guest of the Ministry of Energy”. The continuation of the enigma comes from Me Allegue, Ghoul’s lawyer, who presents to the magistrates a letter, addressed by Mohamed Bedjaoui, from his refuge, through a Parisian law firm, with a copy to the Presidency and the Department of Justice. In this letter, he affirms that it is he who is behind the invitation of Pierre Falcon, and this, “at the request of the President of the Republic and a senior security official”.
Another lawyer from the Ghoul defense group also protested against “the fact that his principal, who is in Algeria and in prison, is sentenced to 10 years, while Bedjaoui, who is still at large, and who admitted having been behind the invitation of Falcon to help the Chinese to have markets received a sentence of 5 years by default”. Me Boutaleb, another lawyer for Ghoul, provides further details: “Falcon came for a few days before leaving for Rwanda. He was received at the Ministry of Defense, and at the Presidency.
In his written response, the Secretary General of the Constitutional Council clearly affirmed that the care of Falcon and the delegation accompanying him at the Sheraton Hotel was provided by the Constitutional Council. Former Foreign Minister Ramtane Lamamra told the press that it was the Constitutional Council that invited Falcon. Why is Ghoul here today? On what basis is the prosecution claiming 12 years in prison against him, while Bedjaoui was sentenced to 5 years in prison? Represented by Me Chiat, the defense of Mohamed Meziane holds the attention of the audience with surprising revelations about Chakib Khelil.
The lawyer begins by going back to the long years spent by the former Minister of Energy in the United States and his “close relationship with this senator from Michigan, Edward Abraham Spencer, who became Minister of Energy in his country”, then presents the latter as “an influential” adviser. “Who dared to contradict or resign under Chakib Khelil? Person.
Why then reproach Meziane for not having abandoned his post? Chakib Khelil was the master sorcerer who taught them witchcraft. He acted under the advice of the American senator, who is actually the craftsman of the law on the privatization of the energy sector. The senator leaned on his weight to obtain an 18 million dollar credit from the World Bank, intended for Algeria to accompany this privatization, through an energy law in 2005 which was in violation of the principle state sovereignty over the country’s resources, but also with article 12 of the law creating the national energy council.
He prepared a law for the privatization of Sonelgaz and therefore of Algerian electricity and gas. Who dared to stand in her way back then? Only one stood up against him to block him. It was the late Minister of the Interior, Lyazid Zerhouni”, declares Me Chiat, in front of an audience glued to his lips. About BRC, he wondered why out of the 41 contracts obtained by BRC, the investigation was only interested in 11, all signed by Mohamed Senhadji, who was never cited.
