Algeria jails former head of state energy giant Sonatrach for 15 years over corruption

An Algerian court handed Tuesday a 15-year prison sentence to the former head of state energy giant Sonatrach in a corruption case, the latest ally of late president Abdelaziz Bouteflika to face jail time.

Abdelmoumen Ould Kaddour, ex-Sonatrach head, had been on trial over the 2018 purchase of the Italian oil refinery Sicilian Augusta.

Local media said the state oil and gas firm had paid ExxonMobil subsidiary Esso Italiana US$720 million for the site and associated infrastructure, seen as overpriced for a refinery in operation since the 1950s.

Prosecutors said the deal had cost Sonatrach over US$2 billion, including some US$916 million for the fuel stocked at the site and renovation costs.

The 71-year-old former official, a close ally of the ousted regime of Bouteflika, was extradited from the United Arab Emirates in August last year after being detained on an international arrest warrant.

Appointed as Sonatrach's head in March 2017, he was sacked just three weeks after Bouteflika's April 2019 resignation amid vast Hirak protests against his two-decade-long rule.

The court has charged Ould Kaddour with squandering public funds, abuse of office and conflict of interest.

He is the latest ex-official in late president Abdelaziz Bouteflika's administration to be jailed for alleged corruption.

Sonatrach's former deputy chief Ahmed Mazighi, who oversaw the purchase, was jailed for seven years.

Another former Sonatrach official indicted in the case was jailed for three years and a fourth was released.

On Monday, Abdelmadjid Sidi Said, another key supporter of the late Bouteflika, was sentenced to a decade in prison for corruption.

Abdelmadjid Sidi Said led the General Union of Algeria Workers (UGTA), the only union recognised at the time by the authorities, from 1997 until he quit just weeks after Bouteflika left.

He had long been unpopular with workers for his unwavering support for Bouteflika.

In May, Said and his three sons were detained on graft charges, months after Bouteflika died following a long illness.

His two sons Djamil and Hanafi were jailed for three and five years, respectively. A third, Ramine, on the run overseas, was sentenced in absentia to a year in jail.

They had been charged with money laundering and "inciting public officials to abuse their functions to obtain undue advantages," among other charges.

Last month, Algerian authorities announced nationalising fourteen companies belonging to businessmen and officials prosecuted in corruption cases.

A governmental agency will be in charge of recovering property and money looted from prosecuted businessmen and officials, placing it at the disposal of the state.

Algeria's recent crackdown on businessmen is prompted by the Hirak uprising protests.

The pro-reform movement, which toppled Bouteflika's two-decad-long regime in 2019, continues to account for the so-called 'Mafia': the wealthiest men of Algeria who were enriched under Bouteflika's corrupt regime.

Despite the new state's "commitment" to ending corruption, human rights and democracy state continue to dwindle.