Algeria to nationalise 14 companies owned by 'corrupt businessmen'

Algerian authorities will nationalise fourteen companies belonging to businessmen and officials prosecuted in corruption cases, announced the Algerian prime minister on Monday.

During the annual outcome presentation, Algeria's Prime Minister Aymen Benabderrahmane said the fourteen companies were confiscated because their assets resulted from "the looting of public money."

"The [Algerian] authorities have worked to transfer the assets and property of 14 confiscated companies to the ownership of the public commercial sector," added Benabderrahman.

The prime minister stressed that the authorities will continue the process of attaching the confiscated companies to a public company for the production, assembly and marketing of vehicles, which will include more than forty confiscated enterprises.

Last week, Algeria's Council of Ministers established a governmental agency in charge of recovering property and money looted from businessmen and officials, placing it at the disposal of the state.

The agency will work in coordination with the Ministries of Justice and Finance.

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, Hirak's demands for civil rights and democracy carry on.

The Algerian regime has pursued repressive tactics against the opposition since the Hirak protests resumed in February 2021, seeking to end the movement once and for all.

Under the newborn regime of current president Abdelmadjid Tebboune, several journalists, activists and bloggers were arrested for voicing support for the Hirak movement.