Said Bouteflika, the brother of Algeria’s deposed president, has been sentenced to 15 years in jail after a two-day trial, it has been confirmed.
He was a key figure among Algeria’s leadership until President Abdelaziz Bouteflika was forced to resign in April following pro-democracy protests.
Two former secret service chiefs and the leader of a political party were also given 15-year jail terms by the military court in Blida, a city south of the capital Algiers.
Prosecutors had asked for the maximum sentence of 20 years to be handed down to all four, defence lawyer Miloud Ibrahimi said, according to the AFP news agency.
They were detained in May during a wave of arrests targeting the former president’s inner circle, accused of conspiring against the state and undermining the military.
Said Bouteflika was widely seen as the real power behind the presidency after 2013 when his brother, who had been in power since 1999, suffered a stroke.
BBC
