Having put the transaction on ice in June, an Algerian court decided on July 13th to put a stop on the re-sale of the media group El Khabar.
La chaîne KBC, propriété du groupe El Khabar.
The administrative tribunal in Algiers has thus decided to cancel definitively the purchase of El Khabar by Ness Prod, a subsidiary of the Cevital group owned by businessman Issad Rebrab, the country’s wealthiest man. The El Khabar group has been ordered to pay costs.
Neither El Khabar’s directors nor their defence lawyers were present in court for the verdict. On June 22nd they announced they would collectively withdraw from the trial, saying it was “pointless to continue working on this case.”
The €40 million deal was supposed to give Ness Prod an 80% stake in El Khabar, a media group which among other things includes the daily newspaper El Khabar and the television channel KBC.
At the end of April the Ministry of Communications filed a complaint against the resale, calling in question the transaction’s legality. According to the Code de l’Information, Iissad Rebrab, who already owns another newspaper, Liberté, “can only control or direct one general information publication of same periodicity published in Algeria.”
On the same day but in another case, the Algerian courts refused to release the three people, including two directors of the KBC channel, who have been in custody since June 24th. They appeared before the court in Algier on Monday July 18th.
Sources: Radio Algérienne, Jeune Afrique, Romandie
