By amending the law, Algeria is seeking to specifically monitor the financial activity of associations and NGOs.
According to the amended draft law, Algeria will expand the circle of bodies charged with combating the phenomenon of money laundering, to include several ministries, including housing, sports, culture, labor and finance, which will have broader tasks in the field of combating money laundering and monitoring its suspicious movement that flows into the financing of organizations and associations suspected of dealing with terrorist organizations.
The law condemns persons who are proven to be involved in suspicious financial or immaterial transactions for the benefit of terrorist organizations, through legal documents or instruments, or through electronic and digital transactions, bonds, remittances, shares and letters of credit.
complex process
The Algerian financial and tax expert, Salami Boubacar, stressed that the task of combating money laundering and terrorist financing is a complex process that requires imposing more precautionary measures, and tightening laws in line with international conventions, foremost of which is the International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism, which Algeria signed in 1999.
• Boubacar added to “Sky News Arabia”: “The law in its new form seeks to protect the national economy, as well as contribute to the elimination of terrorist organizations that discovered many legal loopholes in the recent period to obtain funding and financial support.”
Financial experts confirm that terrorist organizations view the economic systems in rentier countries that depend on hydrocarbon revenues as a major source of hard currency, as is the case in Algeria, as a favorable climate for suspicious economic activities and money laundering.
Algerian financial and economic affairs expert Suleiman Nasser told Sky News Arabia: “Criminal gangs are always looking for an economic climate in which legal uncertainty prevails, and Algeria is now seeking in every way to combat it through digitization and review of laws.”
This step coincides with Algeria’s creation of a national list of terrorist persons and entities, and the classification of the Islamist “Rashad” and “Al-Mak” movements, which calls for the independence of the Kabylie region, as terrorist organizations, as it is forbidden to deal with them or their leaders abroad in any way.
Leading a terrorist organization in Algeria is punishable by death, and anyone active or involved in such organizations is punishable by life imprisonment.
During the last three years that followed the 2019 popular movement, the corridors of the Algerian courts witnessed the trial of several businessmen on charges of money laundering, and the judicial follow-up led to the closure of media institutions and the seizure of property and huge sums of money whose owners were convicted of money laundering.
suspicious money
The report of the United Nations Office for Drugs and Crime against Drugs and Crime on corruption in Algeria from 2010 to 2015, had previously revealed the seizure and confiscation of more than 815 million euros during that period, on charges related to the management and formation of a group of villains and capital laundering.
Nasser said: “In the past, there was a lot of money moving in the context of financing terrorism, and most of it was related to the arms trade, drugs and contraband, and it is time to tighten the screws on these practices to protect national security.”
The financial expert stressed that the new amendments came to keep pace with developments at the international level, in the relationship of suspicious money to terrorist organizations.
He said, “A lot of things have changed at the financial and political level in recent years, which requires reviewing and updating laws and resetting terminology.”
Financial law experts warn against using loose terminology in such laws, emphasizing the need to complete financial investigation procedures before accusations and convictions are brought against persons, owners of associations and non-governmental organizations.
Nasser said: “Such laws follow serious crimes, and it is necessary to be precise in terms of terminology, because loose articles can harm the economy and impede development, as well as those who can misuse them, whether intentionally or unintentionally.”
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