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Algeria: Life imprisonment for convicted murderer of former police chief 

March 6, 2021 at 11:48 am

Algerian security forces gather outside a court in the capital Algiers on 10 December 2019 [RYAD KRAMDI/AFP via Getty Images]

The Criminal Court of the Algerian capital on Friday sentenced a former assistant to the director-general of national security for the murder of his chief in 2010, reported Algeria Press Service.

The Supreme Court had ordered a retrial after accepting the death sentence’s cassation appeal on 27 February, 2017, against Shoaib Oltash, accused of killing former Director-General of National Security Colonel Ali Tounsi in his office on 25 February, 2010.

The trial took place on Thursday, where the public prosecutor requested the confirmation of the death sentence for “premeditated murder”.

The news agency quoted the defendant Oltash, who was the chief of the police aviation unit, stating: “I had no intention of killing Ali Tounsi,” and that he shot gunfire in self-defence after his boss “attacked him with a paper shredder.”

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According to the case resolution, on 25 February, 2010, Oltash shot Tounsi in his office after a heated discussion.

The media reported that the dispute started when Tounsi accused his deputy of corruption in managing the National Security Air Force, and he consequently intended to dismiss him.

A court sentenced Oltash to five years in prison in 2015, after he was found guilty in a corruption case related to purchasing multimedia equipment worth €13 million.