Algerian judges have been trying for years to get their hands on this member of Bouteflika’s bodyguards involved in numerous corruption cases. Although Swiss justice has authorized the transmission of certain banking documents, his extradition still remains very uncertain.
The documents relating to the accounts held in Switzerland by Abdeslam Bouchouareb will be transmitted to the Algerian judges in charge of investigating the case: this is the conclusion of the judgment of the Swiss federal court rendered on July 27, 2023 – which Jeune Afrique obtained a copy. The former minister was denied his requests for the lifting of the protective seizure of his assets in Switzerland as well as the transmission of banking documents, as part of a request for legal assistance introduced by the Algerian justice system in June 2020 This request follows a letter rogatory sent in April of the same year, supplemented by a complementary commission dated June 21, 2021.
Member of the RND (National Democratic Rally) from 2002 to 2014, Minister of Industry from 2014 to 2017, and special advisor to former President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, Abdeslam Bouchouareb was the subject of several convictions in corruption cases, receiving a total of 100 years in prison. “On the run abroad since February 2019”, according to the terms of the judgment, but residing in France, according to the information collected by us, he is also subject to several international warrants launched by the justice system of his country. This close friend of Saïd Bouteflika, the younger brother of the president who died in 2021, is accused of having played a leading role in cases of corruption, embezzlement, and illicit enrichment by using his functions at the Ministry of Industry.
One of the cases for which Algerian judges are requesting this mutual legal assistance from the Swiss justice system is linked to the construction of a hydraulic dam entrusted to a Turkish company whose name has not been mentioned, although it is is probably Nurol, a construction company headed by Nurettin Çarmikli whose name has already appeared – like that of Bouchouareb – in the Panama Papers scandal.
The case dates back to November 2011 when an agreement was allegedly concluded between Nurol and an Algerian company – whose name was also not mentioned in the decree – under which the Turkish firm agreed to provide it with steel pipes. After producing these pipes, Nurol resold them to a company domiciled in Hong Kong, 100% owned by Çarmikli, for an amount of $70 million. It subsequently resold the same pipes to the Algerian company for 85 million dollars. That’s a net capital gain of $15 million.
Commissions and bribes
According to the statement made by Çarmikli – a copy of which was sent to the Swiss courts – 8 million dollars would have passed, via a British company, from the pockets of the Turkish entrepreneur to those of the boss of the Algerian company in relation to Bouchouareb, with a view to paying commissions. “This amount would constitute the payment of bribes to obtain subcontracting contracts,” wrote the Swiss court, citing Algerian court documents. Other sums – amounting to nearly $4 million – were also allegedly paid to various companies owned by this same businessman of Algerian nationality.
Among the elements provided as part of this mutual legal assistance – and largely taken from the Panama papers – are the names of several companies identified by the judges as belonging to Bouchouareb, including Royal Arrival Corp, an offshore structure founded in 2015 by the former special advisor, then Minister of Industry, via a company located in Luxembourg. This structure would have notably housed a bank account containing 700,000 euros in the form of a portfolio of real estate securities at NBAD – a Swiss subsidiary specializing in wealth management of the National Bank of Abu Dhabi. When the scandal broke, the minister explained that these funds were intended to finance real estate for his children. However, according to the daily Le Monde, which revealed the existence of the offshore company, Royal Arrival Corp’s theoretical purpose was commercial representation, negotiation and obtaining contracts in public works, rail and maritime transport in Turkey, in the United Kingdom – and not the management of the Minister of Industry’s assets.
As part of their request for mutual legal assistance, the Algerian judges also indicate that Bouchouareb would have given instructions not to grant entry visas to Algeria to engineers, as well as to the technical and administrative staff of a company. Egyptian company is responsible for carrying out an infrastructure project. In order to resolve the situation and remove these obstacles, the manager of this company – whose name, once again, has not been mentioned – allegedly paid the former Minister of Industry the sum of 5 million dollars.
The judges also claim to have identified twenty-seven other transfers made between October 2012 and September 2016, for a total amount of $31.5 million, having passed through bank accounts held or controlled abroad by people who are the subject of investigations in Algeria. These transfers would be linked to other projects launched in the country during the same period.
Counterattack by lawyers
In execution of this mutual legal assistance agreement between Algeria and Switzerland, Swiss justice has already ordered the first Swiss bank to transmit documents linked to an account held by the former minister, into which he had deposited the sum of 1,740,000 euros. This sum was subject to a precautionary seizure. Swiss justice gave the same instructions to a second bank to which he was transferred, in January 2017, a little over a million euros.
The former dignitary of the Bouteflika era logically launched appeals to oppose the seizure of his assets. In their statement of reasons, his lawyers, Benjamin Borsodi and Charles Goumaz, put forward several arguments. They assert in particular that the Algerian procedure launched against their client in Switzerland would guarantee neither the independence of justice, nor respect for the rights of the defense, nor any basic procedural rights. And that the prosecution he is facing in Algeria was launched because of his political opinions.
Bouchouareb thus declared to the court, again according to the judgment rendered by the Swiss court, that following the so-called “hirak” protest movement, he would have, “like many political leaders and businessmen associated with the regime of the deposed president, is the subject of numerous procedures seriously violating his fundamental rights.” The ex-minister claims to have been criminally convicted “for exclusively political reasons and to have been deprived of the possibility of defending himself”, and finally emphasizes that the Algerian prison system gives rise to inhuman and degrading treatment.
Swiss judges validate
Arguments which, it seems, did not manage to move the Swiss court: it rejected the applicant’s all his requests. Judging that the Algerian requests presented neither manifest errors, nor contradictions, nor gaps, the court, moreover, did not accept the arguments on the lack of guarantees of the independence of justice, of the violation of the rights of the defendants or political persecution. Validating the fact, the transmission of banking documents aims to “enable the requesting authorities to continue their ongoing investigations by having at their disposal elements which could prove relevant both for their prosecution and their defense” The Swiss judicial body has therefore decided to maintain the precautionary seizure of the special advisor’s assets and authorized the transmission of his banking documentation to Algiers.
Bouchouareb therefore lost this round. But does he have reason to feel really worried by the judges of his country? Based in France, he seems safe from extradition. By the time his country actually recovers the millions it holds in Switzerland, a lot of water will have flowed under the bridge. Asked by Jeune Afrique, his lawyer Charles Goumaz did not wish to comment on this matter.
