Scandal and corruption in Algiers. On Sunday 25 December 2022, the public prosecutor of the Court of Algiers called for a five-year prison sentence against the former Algerian Minister of Culture Khalida Toumi.

Minister of Culture of Algeria from 2002 to 2014 and prosecuted for “abuse of office, granting of undue advantages and squandering of public funds” during her term of office, Khalida Toumi was charged in 2019, then imprisoned.

In April 2022, the former minister was sentenced to six years in prison and in July, her sentence was reduced to four years. At the end of the same month, Khalida Toumi was granted parole. The verdict of the appeal was then overturned by the Supreme Court.

For some, the prosecution was intended to please the country’s Islamo-conservative circles, as Khalida Toumi is a strong feminist political figure in Algeria.