A former Algerian cabinet minister detained in a corruption case has died from the Covid-19 illness, a news website reported, quoting his brother.

Ex-telecom minister Moussa Benhamadi, once close to ex-president Abdelaziz Bouteflika, contracted the novel coronavirus earlier this month and died on Friday, said his brother Hocine Benhamadi. He was 67.

“He contracted the virus on July 4 and was only transferred to hospital in Algiers on July 13,” the brother told the website of French-language daily Liberte.

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