<p>An Algerian court on Monday sentenced in absentia ex-energy ministry Chakib Khelil, who served under former president Abdelaziz Bouteflika, to 20 years in prison on corruption charges, local media reported.</p>.<p>The Sidi M'Hamed court in Algiers also fined the longtime former minister, who served for half of Bouteflika's 20-year tenure, two million dinars (about $14,200).</p>.<p>A former head of the North African country's oil and gas firm Sonatrach, Mohamed Meziane, was sentenced to five years in prison and a one-million dinar fine in the same trial.</p>.<p>Meziane is already serving time in a separate case.</p>.<p>Sonatrach's former vice president, Abdelhafidh Feghouli, was sentenced to six years in prison and a fine of one million dinars.</p>.<p>The trial opened on February 1, with the prosecution demanding 20- and 10-year sentences for Khelil and Meziane.</p>.<p>Sonatrach officials stood accused of favouring Italian group SAIPEM for contracts to construct the Arzew gas complex in the western province of Oran over an Emirati firm, at Khelil's instruction.</p>.<p>The officials were also charged with "granting undue privileges", abuse of their positions and "concluding contracts in violation of laws and regulations", according to national news agency APS.</p>.<p>The same court on Monday sentenced in absentia two representatives of SAIPEM, Gilbert Bulato and Massimo Gallipoli Steal, to six years in prison and a one-million dinar fine each.</p>.<p>In 2013, the Algerian judiciary issued an international arrest warrant for Khelil over a case involving contracts between Sonatrach and foreign companies, including SAIPEM, a unit of Italian energy giant ENI.</p>.<p>Prosecutors in Milan had accused SAIPEM of paying bribes to obtain contracts in Algeria, and the subsidiary was fined in 2018, before being cleared by an appeals court in 2020.</p>.<p>Khelil, now 82, quit his post in 2010 and moved to the United States after being associated with a scandal involving high-ranking Sonatrach officials who were later jailed for corruption.</p>.<p>He returned to Algeria in 2016 after the cases were dropped -- then left again after Bouteflika's resignation in 2019 that sparked a string of investigations into graft by his officials.</p>.<p><strong>Watch the latest DH Videos here:</strong></p>
<p>An Algerian court on Monday sentenced in absentia ex-energy ministry Chakib Khelil, who served under former president Abdelaziz Bouteflika, to 20 years in prison on corruption charges, local media reported.</p>.<p>The Sidi M'Hamed court in Algiers also fined the longtime former minister, who served for half of Bouteflika's 20-year tenure, two million dinars (about $14,200).</p>.<p>A former head of the North African country's oil and gas firm Sonatrach, Mohamed Meziane, was sentenced to five years in prison and a one-million dinar fine in the same trial.</p>.<p>Meziane is already serving time in a separate case.</p>.<p>Sonatrach's former vice president, Abdelhafidh Feghouli, was sentenced to six years in prison and a fine of one million dinars.</p>.<p>The trial opened on February 1, with the prosecution demanding 20- and 10-year sentences for Khelil and Meziane.</p>.<p>Sonatrach officials stood accused of favouring Italian group SAIPEM for contracts to construct the Arzew gas complex in the western province of Oran over an Emirati firm, at Khelil's instruction.</p>.<p>The officials were also charged with "granting undue privileges", abuse of their positions and "concluding contracts in violation of laws and regulations", according to national news agency APS.</p>.<p>The same court on Monday sentenced in absentia two representatives of SAIPEM, Gilbert Bulato and Massimo Gallipoli Steal, to six years in prison and a one-million dinar fine each.</p>.<p>In 2013, the Algerian judiciary issued an international arrest warrant for Khelil over a case involving contracts between Sonatrach and foreign companies, including SAIPEM, a unit of Italian energy giant ENI.</p>.<p>Prosecutors in Milan had accused SAIPEM of paying bribes to obtain contracts in Algeria, and the subsidiary was fined in 2018, before being cleared by an appeals court in 2020.</p>.<p>Khelil, now 82, quit his post in 2010 and moved to the United States after being associated with a scandal involving high-ranking Sonatrach officials who were later jailed for corruption.</p>.<p>He returned to Algeria in 2016 after the cases were dropped -- then left again after Bouteflika's resignation in 2019 that sparked a string of investigations into graft by his officials.</p>.<p><strong>Watch the latest DH Videos here:</strong></p>