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Abdelmoumen Khalifa : From « Golden Boy » to « New Terrorist »

Wednesday Feb 21 2007.

Despite unanimity to call Khalifa case “the Century’s Scandal”, there is divergence among the lawyers team as to the “appropriate” appellations for the case’s main defendant, namely Abdelmoumen Khalifa, who has been called the “Golden Boy”, or “Miracleman”, he was even described as “a model for successful young investors”.

All of these denominations reflect the fact that Khalifa empire’s emergence was not at all ordinary, hence the opposite appellatives used by lawyers in Blida criminal court, where the case is being tried. Some of them call him the “New Terrorist”, others “Mafia Founder” and many avoid using his real name “Abdelmoumen” -which includes the word “Believer” in Arabic-, “because he was not really a Believer”(since he is accused of robbing money deposited in the Bank he created), a lawyer explains. This similarly mirrors that Khalifa empire’s collapse was not ordinary either.

Defence team’s appellations concerning former Khalifa Group’s chairman, like “Terrorist” and “Mafia”, carry rather more political meanings. It is a manner to say that Khalifa trial in Blida is more significant than the framework within which the case has been restricted, that is to say “criminal conspiracy and robbery”.

Even if everybody, at Blida’s Criminal Court, agreed on the charge of “abuse of confidence” as regard the case’s defendants as well the involvement of Central Bank’s top executives in the affair -as it is clearly mentioned in the remand- there is a deep will to hush-up the implication of government spheres in the same case although some State Ministers and their sons have been summoned to appear before the court. The aim is not only to prevent tarnishing power, but also for not getting the State legally compelled to indemnify the victims who lost their money they had deposited in Khalifa Bank.

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