A man who disappeared almost 30 years ago, when he was 17, after an alleged kidnapping, has been found alive in his neighbor’s basement, under piles of hay.
Named Omar Bin Omran, he is said to have disappeared in the city of Djelfa, Algeria, 27 years ago.
His family assumed he had been killed during the civil war between the North African nation’s government and Islamist rebel groups that raged for 10 years in the 1990s and early 2000s.
The truth literally hit home: The missing man was allegedly taken prisoner by a 61-year-old neighbor who is now in police custody after Omar, now 45, was found in his basement earlier this week.
Images were shared on social media and broadcast on Algerian television networks of the moment Omar was found in what appeared to be a well inside his alleged captor’s home.
Omar Bin Omran as a teenager before being kidnapped, photographed with two younger relatives (left) and after being found (right)
Images of Omar’s discovery have gone viral on social media. The title in Arabic reads: “At the time they found him in his neighbor’s house.”
His family is believed to have believed him dead, killed in the Algerian civil war that broke out more than 20 years ago.
The blurry video shows torches glowing in a hole surrounded by hay as Omar furtively glances up, seemingly bewildered by the search party surrounding him, bits of straw loose in his hair.
Other images have since circulated of the bearded man emerging from the hole, and of him as a teenager, sitting with a dog and small children.
Prosecutors in Djelfa, a mountain town of about 500,000 people about 225 kilometers south of the coastal capital Algiers, say Omar will receive psychological care after being rescued, while vowing to give him justice.
“The Djelfa Prosecutor General’s Office informs the public that on May 12 at 8 p.m. local time it found the victim Omar B, 45 years old, in the case of his neighbor, BA, 61 years old,” they said in a statement. .
A judicial official from Djelfa was quoted as saying: “Two days ago, on May 12, 2024, the Prosecutor’s Office received, through the regional department of the National Gendarmerie in El Jadid, a complaint against an anonymous person who claimed that the brother of the author, Omar bin Omran, missing for about 30 years, is found in the house of one of his neighbors, inside a sheepfold.
‘Following this report, the Prosecutor General of the Court of Idrisiya, in the province of Djelfa, ordered the National Gendarmerie to open an in-depth investigation and the agents went to the house in question.
“The missing person was found and the suspect, the 61-year-old homeowner, was arrested.”
A statement issued by Albania’s Ministry of Justice (pictured) promised that Omar would receive psychological care and promised that the perpetrator would be tried “severely.”
The images show what locals said was the scene of Omar’s discovery in Djelfa, Algeria, illuminated by the lights of emergency vehicles.
He added: ‘The Public Ministry ordered that the victim receive medical and psychological treatment, and the suspect will be presented to the Public Ministry immediately after the investigation is completed.’
The authorities have promised that the “perpetrator of this heinous crime” will be judged “severely.”
It is understood that the detained man worked as a civil servant and lived alone.
A neighbor of the kidnapped man told Algerian television Bilad: “His poor mother died while he was in captivity, without knowing what had happened to her, without knowing that all this time he was really next to her.”
A statement from Algeria’s Justice Ministry suggested that the victim’s family had been informed of Omar’s whereabouts after the alleged captor’s brother aired his grievances on social media during an inheritance dispute.
Mystery abounds as to why Omar did not ask for help during the nearly three decades he was held captive.
Algerian media reported that Omar said he had been unable to call for help because of a spell his alleged kidnapper had cast on him.