State Mills Trial: Ex-Minister Hamid Temmar Faces Judges After Fleeing Abroad

A high-profile corruption case from the Abdelaziz Bouteflika era is being reopened by the Sidi M’hamed tribunal in Algiers, focusing on former Privatization Minister Hamid Temmar. Temmar, who fled Algeria in 2018, is accused of "selling off" public industrial assets for a nominal fee, a scandal that has been dubbed the "privatization for a dinar."

The trial centers on the opaque privatization of state-owned mills, particularly the "Moulins de Tiaret," a strategic subsidiary of the public group ERIADH. Investigations and defense lawyers indicate that significant portions of this industrial heritage were transferred to Ekhlass, a private company specializing in milling and agri-food, for a sum described by investigators as a "symbolic dinar."

While Temmar, considered a key architect of the economic liberalization policies under Bouteflika, will be tried in absentia, several businessmen, high-ranking public officials, and administrative cadres will occupy the defendant's box. They face serious charges including abuse of function, granting unjustified advantages, embezzlement of public funds, complicity, and money laundering within an organized criminal group.

Economic analysts suggest this trial goes beyond individual criminal responsibility, scrutinizing Temmar's economic model that dominated Algeria's market economy transition for nearly two decades. The proceedings aim to shed light on the alleged corruption and mismanagement that characterized the privatization process during the previous administration.