Ex-Algeria PM and ex-health minister given 5-year jail terms

Former Algerian Prime Minister Noureddine Bedoui announces the results of local elections in the capital Algiers, on 24 November, 2017 [RYAD KRAMDI/AFP/Getty Images]

An Algerian court on Wednesday handed five year prison terms to former Prime Minister Noureddine Bedoui and former Health Minister Abdelmalek Boudiaf, and fined them one million dinars ($7,383), the state news agency said, according to Reuters.

The sentences relate to a corruption case.

The two former officials were involved in a project involving the construction of a new international airport in the state of Constantine. The cost of the project escalated to nearly seven times the original estimate, and it took a decade longer to build than the four years projected length of the project, costing the public treasury huge sums of money, according to news outlet Al Mayadeen.

READ: Algeria appeals court increases journalists jail term to 7 years

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