ALGIERS: An Algerian court on Tuesday sentenced former labor minister Tijani Hassan Haddam to seven years in prison over the embezzlement of nearly $45 million, Algerian media reported.
Haddam headed Algeria’s National Social Security Fund between 2015 and 2019, later becoming labor minister until 2020.
He was convicted in a case involving the purchase of property he had falsely alleged was for the social security fund, reports said.
Also convicted was the property developer who sold the building, who was handed a seven-year term, reports said.
Two former mayors of an Algiers municipality where the building is located were also sentenced to four years in prison, while the former director of state property and another official were each sentenced to three years.
The charges against them included “exploiting one’s position and granting unjustified privileges to others” and “squandering of public funds,” Echorouk newspaper reported.
Haddam was appointed labor minister under former president Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who resigned in April 2019 amid mass pro-democracy protests after 20 years of rule.
President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, first elected in December 2019 and re-elected in September 2024, has launched a sweeping anti-corruption campaign targeting several former ministers and officials from Bouteflika’s tenure.