![Abdeslam Bouchouareb, Algerian Minister of Industry on December 30, 2015, in Algiers, Algeria. [Nacerdine ZEBAR/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images]](https://i0.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/GettyImages-966193552.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1)
The French prosecutor has refused Algeria’s request to extradite former Minister of Industry Abdeslam Bouchouareb, who has been living in France since 2019, and who is wanted in his country on charges of “corruption”, Anadolu reported.
On Wednesday the French public prosecutor’s office informed the Court of Appeal of Aix-en-Provence of its decision after it examined Bouchoouareb’s case for several months.
According to French media, “the public prosecutor’s office has asked the Aix-en-Provence Court of Appeal to reject the six requests for extradition to Algeria of Abdesselam Bouchouareb, Minister of Industry and Mines between 2014 and 2017 under the presidency of Abdelaziz Bouteflika.”
“The removal of Mr Bouchouareb, who is seriously ill, would put him, if not at risk of life, (at risk) of rapid and irreversible decline in his health,” said the Attorney General, Raphael Sanesi de Gentile, according to French media.
Questioned by the investigating chamber of the Aix-en-Provence Court of Appeal on the conditions of detention awaiting this 72-year-old man, the same sources added: “The Algerian authorities mentioned incarceration at the El-Harrach penitentiary centre in Algiers, in ‘rooms of 120 to 145 m2’, without indicating the number of detainees in these rooms.”
“I find it hard to imagine that he could live in a community with fifteen people,” said the attorney general. “More like 100 people,” retorted Benjamin Bohbot, Bouchouareb’s lawyer.
Since the fall of the regime of former Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika in April 2019, several of his ministers and prime ministers have been prosecuted and sentenced to heavy prison terms in so-called anti-corruption cases.
READ: France prepares list of hundreds for deportation to Algeria