TIPASA – The Tipasa Court decided, on Saturday, to adjourn, until December 11, the re-examination of the case of the ex-wali of Algiers Abdelkader Zoukh, sentenced in three corruption cases to sentences ranging from 4 to 5 years firm prison.
The correctional chamber of the court of Tipasa decided to re-examine the case of the ex-wali of Algiers prosecuted in 3 corruption cases, following the judgment of the supreme court which accepted an appeal in cassation against the previous verdicts.
The adjournment of the trial comes at the request of the defense because of the boycott by the lawyers of the legal action to denounce the tax system applied in the finance law (LF) 2022, recently adopted by the two chambers of parliament.
The Tipasa Court confirmed on February 15, 2021 on appeal the judgments handed down at first instance condemning, to 4 and 5 years in prison, the former wali of Algiers, Abdelkader Zoukh prosecuted in corruption cases.
The verdict, in this case, was delivered following the hearing held on February 6, during which the prosecution requested sentences of 10 to 15 years in prison against the former wali of Algiers for cases involving members of the family of the former Director-General of National Security (DGSN), Abdelghani Hamel, the president of the former FCE, Ali Haddad, the businessman Mahieddine Tahkout and members of his family.
Abdelkader Zoukh is currently serving a prison sentence pronounced against him, last December, by the Tipasa court which sentenced him to terms of 4, 4 and 5 years in prison, together with a fine of one million DA in each of the cases for which he is being prosecuted, in addition to 10 million DA of compensation for the losses suffered by the Public Treasury.
He was also banned from holding positions of responsibility in the state and from running for political office for 5 years after the expiration of his sentence.
Zoukh was prosecuted as the main accused in the case of the family of Abdelghani Hamel (his wife, his son Chafik and his daughter Chahinez), for “deliberate squandering of public funds by an official”, “illegal use of property and public funds entrusted to him by virtue of his office “,” abuse of office and violation of laws and regulations with the aim of obtaining advantages for a third party “.
Regarding the charges against Zoukh in the case of Ali Haddad, the former president of the FCE (witness in the case), they are relate to “abuse of office and granting undue privileges”.
In the case relating to the granting of privileges to the Mahieddine Tahkout family, Zoukh was prosecuted for “deliberately granting unjustified privileges to a third party during the conclusion of a market and illegal agreements, corruption in the award of public contracts, squandering of public funds, abuse of office, and influence peddling”.
