Algeria upholds 20-year jail sentence for Bouteflika-era energy minister Chakib Khelil

An Algerian appeals court on Tuesday upheld a 20-year prison sentence for corruption against Chakib Khelil, energy minister for a decade under longtime president Abdelaziz Bouteflika, the APS news agency reported.

The court also fined him two million dinars (about $13,600) and upheld prison sentences of five and six years respectively against Mohamed Meziane, ex-head of state oil and gas giant Sonatrach, and his deputy Abdelhafidh Feghouli.

The Sonatrach officials were accused of prioritising Italian firm Saipem over an Emirati firm for a contract to construct the Arzew gas complex in the western region of Oran - at Khelil's behest.

The officials were also charged with "granting undue privileges", abusing their positions and "concluding contracts in violation of laws and regulations", APS reported.

Two other Bouteflika-era ministers had jail terms on corruption allegations upheld on appeal on Tuesday: Djamel Ould Abbes for six years and Said Berkat for four, the news agency said.

The court also sentenced two representatives of Saipem in absentia to five years in prison.

In 2013, the Algerian judiciary had issued an international arrest warrant for Khelil over a case involving contracts between Sonatrach and foreign companies, including Saipem, a former subsidiary of Italian energy giant ENI.

Prosecutors in Milan had accused Saipem of paying bribes to obtain contracts in Algeria, and the subsidiary was fined in 2018, before being cleared by an appeals court in 2020.

Khelil, now 82, quit his post in 2010 and moved to the United States after being associated with a scandal involving high-ranking Sonatrach officials who were later jailed for corruption.

He returned to Algeria in 2016 after the cases were dropped - then left again after Bouteflika's resignation in 2019 that sparked a string of investigations into graft by his officials.