Strange decisions by the Algerian justice system

At a time when small traders are being sentenced to harsh sentences ranging from 7 to 10 years in prison for having stored sacks of semolina and tins of oil to make traditional cakes during the month of Ramadan, a very strange sentence was handed down earlier this week by the Algerian judiciary, described by the "vox populi" as "telephone justice". 

It concerns Hamid Melzi, former head of the Club des Pins state residence and head of five public companies (the only one of its kind in the annals). He was prosecuted for influence peddling, corruption and money laundering. He was sentenced to five years in prison, which was reduced on appeal to three and a half years in January 2022. The charge of economic espionage was dropped from the case. However, it was the first charge that landed him in prison. 

On Sunday 9 April, the Algiers court again sought a five-year prison sentence against Melzi for the huge expenses incurred by the Sheraton hotel in Algiers. The construction cost of this 4-star hotel is very high. And this is only one of many cases. In the case of the construction of the Sheraton hotel in the commune of Staouéli, west of Algiers, it should be noted that, in addition to the staggering cost, the methods of awarding the contract are illegal. The project was managed by mutual agreement by a single person. There was no call for tenders, as is done for large contracts. 

"In his plea, the representative of the prosecution described the funds injected into the Sheraton hotel construction project as astronomical. He also pointed out that the expert report on the case revealed that large sums of money had been spent on the purchase of surveillance cameras imported by the Chinese company CSCEC, 80% of which were transferred abroad," said a source present at the trial. 

Hamid Melzi, who ran the Club des Pins state residence, to which the Moretti residence was attached, was considered one of the most powerful shadowy men. This former artisan plumber saw many of the regime's potentates bow to him. He always knew how to take advantage of solid support to maintain his position, which he acquired in the mid-1980s. A position he relinquished in May 2019 as part of the purge initiated by the late Ahmed Gaïd Salah, former army chief of staff. Allegedly close to the former head of the intelligence services, Mohamed Mediene alias Toufik, he was the eyes and ears at the Sahel-Club des Pins residence, where most of the regime's VIPs resided. He was one of the first to bear the brunt of a campaign of reckoning that saw dozens of generals, ministers and senior officials fill the country's prisons. 

A few days later, on 27 June 2019, Hamid Melzi would be reunited with two of his sons Mouloud and Zoheir, while two others are placed under judicial surveillance. They are prosecuted for "money laundering and transfer of assets obtained by corruption to conceal the illicit origin as part of a criminal gang, squandering public funds, inciting public officials to exploit their real and supposed influence in order to benefit from undue privileges, benefiting from the power and influence of state officials, local authorities, public enterprises and institutions under public law and public enterprises or public economic establishments of an industrial and commercial nature (EPICs) during the elaboration of contracts and markets in order to increase prices and modify, in their favour, the quality of materials, services and supplies". 

Without having worked a single day, Melzi's sons own a fruit juice factory worth 6 million euros and numerous properties in Algeria and Spain. 

Five months after Tebboune's inauguration as head of state and the death of Gaïd Salah, Melzi's sons were smuggled out of prison and the case was closed. This was to be expected. The Melzi family is related by marriage to the Tebbounes. As a result, their father's 5-year prison sentence was reduced to 3 years on appeal. The case had been inked to be closed like that of his children. He was released from prison on 7 November 2022. Five months later, his 3-year prison sentence, although served in full, was overturned. In other words, Hamid Melzi was the victim of a miscarriage of justice and the public authorities would soon rehabilitate him and compensate him, of course. 

Melzi is not the first to benefit from the justice of the "new Algeria". Long before him, General Khaled Nezzar saw his 20-year prison sentence evaporate into thin air, as did General Toufik, former head of the Intelligence and Security Department, who was sentenced to 15 years. The acquittal came at the end of a hasty cassation trial held on a Saturday, a day of weekly rest. The same applies to his son, Lotfi, sentenced together with his wife, Chahinèze, in a case under ordinary law, to 6 years in prison for money laundering and falsification of documents. The other cases concerning money laundering, tax fraud and capital evasion will be closed quietly. 

Another beneficiary of telephone justice is General Hassan. After serving his 5-year prison sentence and several months after his release from Blida military prison, his trial was held in cassation to pronounce his acquittal. He will be rehabilitated and compensated. 

Finally, the Algerian regime's most famous Caesar is undoubtedly General Djebbar Mehenna, former head of the army's Central Security Directorate (DCSA) and current head of the General Directorate of Documentation and External Security (DGDSE). 

On 21 October, Algerian public television announced: "The examining magistrate of the Blida military court ordered the imprisonment, "as a precautionary measure", of retired General Djebbar Mehenna", referring to a communiqué from the military prosecutor of the military court of appeal in Blida (50 km south of Algiers). According to the same source, General Mehenna is being prosecuted for "illicit enrichment" and "influence peddling". 

He would be sentenced to eight years in prison. But he will only serve eleven months between October 2019 and July 2020. He was reinstated in November 2021 and appointed head of the General Directorate for the Fight against Subversion (DGLS). His mission is to monitor the political scene, especially in Kabylia, where he is from. On 3 September 2020, he was appointed head of the DGDSE. 

It would be a disservice to the first privileged of Algerian justice if he were not cited alongside these litigants of a different kind. It is he who inaugurated the parade of "victims of miscarriages of justice". He is Khaled Tebboune. The son of Abdelmadjid Tebboune, President of the Algerian Republic. Jailed in June following the arrest of Kamel Chikhi, alias Kamel the Butcher, and his cronies, after the discovery of a shipment of 7 quintals of cocaine in the port of Oran, Khaled Tebboune was released a few days after his father's entry into the presidential palace of El-Mouradia. He was accused of having received bribes from Kamel Chikhi to obtain exemptions for his real estate developments, issued by the then Minister of Housing and Urban Planning, one Abdelmadjid Tebboune. At the end of a well-done trial, he was acquitted. As for the package given to him by the main accused, Kamel Chikhi, which was seen in a filmed scene being withheld as evidence of corruption, the court concluded that it was two bottles of perfume that had been offered to him and could not be withheld as a means of corruption, as Kamel Chikhi had testified in court. The latter was rewarded for the closure of the cocaine case and received a 7-year prison sentence.  

In his declarations to the press, Abdelmadjid Tebboune has been constantly asserting that Algeria has an independent and fair judicial system.