Algeria hands life term to man who kidnapped his teenage neighbour for 26 years

An Algerian court has sentenced to life imprisonment a man who held his neighbour captive in his cellar for 26 years, Anadolu reported citing local media.

Ennahar Online said the ruling was issued late last night by the Djelfa Judicial Council after a trial that lasted for a number of hours.

According to the same source, five defendants were prosecuted in the case on charges including kidnapping and failing to notify the competent authorities about the kidnapping.

The Djelfa court sentenced the main defendant in the case, who claimed to be a “sorcerer”, to life imprisonment, two other people to one year in jail for failure to report the kidnapping and acquitted the other two, according to the website.

In May, Algerian authorities announced that Omar Bin Omran, who disappeared from Djelfa in 1996, has been found alive in his neighbour’s cellar.

A statement by the Djelfa Public Prosecution Office at the time said it had received a complaint that Bin Omran was in the house of one of his neighbours, under haystacks.

“Following this report, the general prosecutor ordered the national gendarmerie to open an in-depth investigation and officers went to the house in question. On 12 May at 8pm local time, [they] found victim Omar Bin Omran, aged 45, in the cellar of his neighbour, BA, aged 61,” it added.

The victim’s family had previously believed he was kidnapped and assassinated by armed groups who were active in Algeria during the 1990s, when he was 16 years old.

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