The details revealed by the Attorney General at the Algiers Court of Justice regarding the investigations into the importation of sacrificial rams for the year 2026 have sparked widespread public interest due to the extent of the violations that included health and financial aspects in one of the largest import operations financed by the state to ensure the availability of sacrificial animals and control their prices.
The investigations conducted by the Attorney General at the Algiers Court of Justice, Mohamed Kamal Ben Boudiaf, resulted in the prosecution of 41 suspects before the Economic and Financial Crimes Division on charges related to abuse of office, influence peddling, embezzlement of public funds, violation of legislative and regulatory provisions concerning public procurement, and money laundering. The investigating judge ordered the pre-trial detention of 13 defendants, while placing 28 others under judicial supervision, most of whom were supervisors of points of sale, who were prosecuted for gross negligence.
The investigations revealed that the import operation included 100,332 sheep heads brought in between March 25 and May 29, 2026 for the benefit of the Algerian Red Meat Company, but the operation recorded, according to the results of the investigations, serious irregularities in the health aspect.
The veterinary inspector at the border centers in Bejaia reported, before the unloading of one of the ships, the appearance of clinical symptoms indicating infectious diseases among the herd. However, the committee that was sent to inspect was described by the prosecution as lacking the necessary expertise, which resulted in the death of 3,615 heads, and subjecting 10,727 heads to sanitary slaughter, with thousands of other heads being held.
The investigations also revealed fraudulent maneuvers in the country of origin, which consisted of replacing sheep that had been monitored with others of unknown origin before shipping them to Algeria, which was considered one of the main reasons for the breach of health guarantees for the operation.
The violations were not limited to the veterinary side, as investigations revealed a circumvention of competition rules in the international deal to import one million heads of sheep, by adopting formal procedures at the beginning to show respect for the law, before resorting to direct contracting by simple agreement, with more than 700,000 heads being granted to only four main dealers.
The investigations also revealed an unjustified discrepancy in purchase prices, ranging between 5.35 and 6 euros per kilogram, while the price of a single head transported by air exceeded 900 euros, a figure that raised widespread questions about the cost of the operation and how it was conducted, especially given its funding from the public treasury.
Investigators also detected forgery of minutes from the envelope opening and bid evaluation committees, by rewriting them with earlier dates to give a legal character to the contracting procedures.
The investigations extended to a number of officials of the Algerian Red Meat Company, including the general manager, the finance and accounting manager, the head of the opening and evaluation committee and his deputy, the committee secretary, the person in charge of billing, the head of the veterinary unit, the head of the accounting department, and the director of the commercial department, in addition to economic operators and suppliers.
The investigation also included the file of supplying digital identification tags for sheep, where suspicions were recorded of leaking information related to the deals before they were announced, which broadened the circle of those following the case.
In parallel with these data, activists on social media recirculated criticisms that had previously accompanied the sale of sacrificial animals, talking about the quality of some imported rams, and scenes of animals that showed symptoms of illness or died after being acquired. These are data that the authorities later reacted to by opening investigations that revealed the existence of imbalances in the health aspect.
On June 6, Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune ordered an investigation into the shortcomings recorded during the importation of sacrificial animals for Eid, particularly regarding organization and distribution, during a cabinet meeting dedicated to evaluating the process.
Tags:
africa
