[MSN] Batna antiquities and archaeological pieces sold to Jewish merchants in Tunisia

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Batna antiquities and archaeological pieces sold to Jewish merchants in Tunisia
Four defendants under judicial suit

The hearing magistrate in Batna (east of Algiers) court had put at a late hour yesterday, four implicated individuals under judiciary control. The accused were sued for theft, rare treasure of antiquity smuggling and looting cultural and protected properties from Batna, with a view to sell them to Jewish tradesmen in Tunisia.
The issue of international network for cultural treasures smuggling has been discovered according to information from Tunisia revealing that some Algerians natives of Batna are smuggling antiquities and archaeological pieces in order to sell them to Jewish merchants and Tunisian ones in each of Kairouane and Djerba isle at a cheap rate in hard currency despite their very high price within international markets due to their rarity and historical value.
According to this information, Batna security services have arrested two implicated “L.F” 41years old and “B.K” 28 years old in Seriana municipality, “M.M” a jeweller 36 years old and “M .T ”a daily working earner 26 years old living at Merouana in Batna Wilaya.
On the basis of the State prosecutor’s authorisation, the security members have undertaken thorough inspection at the jeweller’s besides the three other defendants’ houses where a lamp that came back to Roman era and six imitated  Roman Statues have been found in the house of one of the suspects. After deep inquiries and exploiting the suspects’ information, the investigations have extended to Merouana where the jeweller’s shop had been inspected to find 31 antiquity pieces of which 23 old pieces were made of bronze and came back to Roman era. Moreover a statue of a human head made of marble in addition to a vase made of porcelain referring to Roman era have been discovered in Merouana, at one of the suspects’ house. Noteworthy, the archaeological pieces are to be worth a fortune within world markets.

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