This Tuesday, May 14, the Algerian authorities announced the discovery of a 45-year-old man who had been kidnapped for more than 25 years. He was held in the cattle pen of his neighbor, aged 61, who was arrested.
A barely believable story. Algerian police arrested a 61-year-old man, suspected of having kidnapped one of his neighbors since 1998. The victim, aged 45, had mysteriously disappeared and was never found.
According to a press release from the prosecutor of the governorate of Djelfa, located 300 kilometers from Algiers the capital, his captivity lasted 26 years. Local media specify that the missing man was held in his neighbor’s cattle pen.
According to the same sources, who report comments from those close to him, the man could hear and see his family members through an opening. However, it was impossible to alert them or escape, for an astonishing reason, in this case, “because of a spell that his captor had cast on him.”
The arrest resulted from a denunciation published on social networks, which led to a police search of the accused’s home.
The kidnapper was arrested by the Algerian police. The prosecution indicated that he was a local municipal employee, without history, who had lived as if nothing had happened since the kidnapping. After his interrogation, he will be tried in court.