Since 2019 the trials of ex-ministers, former senior state officials and ex-businessmen have followed one another, and the discoveries of their fortunes, but also of what they owned as real estate has aroused outrage. If the convictions fell, the seizures of their property followed their conviction.
Indeed, in addition to the prison sentences for many of these former state officials but also these ex-oligarchs, justice has decided to seize their bank accounts, their real estate and their businesses.
One of these former state executives, whose property was seized, we find Said Bouteflika, brother of the late ousted president Abdelaziz and former adviser to the presidency of the Republic. These assets seized from Saïd Bouteflika were acquired during this period.
According to the French-language daily “Le Soir d’Algérie”, a few weeks ago, the Algerian justice proceeded to the recovery of all his bank accounts which had been frozen the day after his transfer from the military prison of Blida to that of El Harrach in January 2021. He therefore had the status of person prosecuted in corruption cases in connection with certain files involving ex-businessman Ali Haddad, in particular. His first accounts were also recovered after his final conviction in the El Istimraria case, this television channel which was to serve as a propaganda tool for the fifth term of Abdelaziz Bouteflika. It is a CPA account containing a sum of money in dinars, and two other accounts, in euros and in dollars. However, no information indicating the amounts recovered is available.
Said Bouteflika and Ali Haddad
What about real estate?
As for real estate, several houses and apartments have been recovered, according to the same source. This is a five-room duplex located in Ben Aknoun, a house in El Biar, two luxurious apartments renovated to the tune of ten million dinars in the Val d’Hydra. We also reveal the existence of rights in real estate in joint ownership. There are a total of six houses divided between Bachir-El-Ibrahimi, El Biar (one house), another house in Algiers-Centre, two properties in Hydra and two other houses in Tlemcen.
But also from an underground warehouse in Ben Aknoun, there is lifting of the right to rent underground parking areas in Ben Aknoun and a parking lot in Bachir-Ibrahimi.
The judge who heard the El Isstimraria case questioned Said Bouteflika several times about this long list of assets and accounts seized, and to provide the reason why he did not make a declaration of assets as required. the law. He replied that he had never been asked to do so when he was appointed President of the Republic and that at the end of his term he was already in prison. By also justifying that he was able to acquire his real estate with his salary as an adviser to the presidency and his savings accumulated when he was a professor at the University of Bab Ezzouar.
