Ex-Algerian premiers handed jail terms

ALGIERS: Two detained former prime ministers under Algeria’s longtime ex-president Abdelaziz Bouteflika were handed additional prison sentences on Monday for corruption, local media reported.

Ahmed Ouyahia and Abdelmalek Sellal were sentenced to six and five years respectively for money laundering, wasting public money, abuse of office and "awarding contracts in violation of public procurement regulations", according to the newspapers Ennahar, Echorouk and El Hayat.

The charges related to Hamid Melzi, the former boss of a state firm that runs a luxury residence for government officials as well as a publicly owned hotel company. Melzi was sentenced to five years in prison, and also faces trial for industrial espionage and "harming the national economy". Ouyahia served four times as prime minister between 1995 and 2019, while Sellal led the government from 2014 to 2017 and managed all four of Bouteflika’s election campaigns.