A man who was kidnapped at age 19 and found 26 years later in Algeria over the weekend had been just a few minutes’ walk from his family the entire time.
But the man, named Omar Bin Omran, never asked for help because he was convinced his captor had cast a magic spell on him, local reports said.
Omran disappeared during the decade-long 1998 Algerian civil war, leading his family to assume he had died in the conflict between the North African nation’s government and several Islamist rebel groups.
The truth was much closer to home: now 45 years old, he was found among piles of hay in a stable on May 12, just 200 meters from his family home in the town of Djelfa.
The discovery came after the captor’s brother aired his grievances on social media, allegedly due to an inheritance dispute. Reports said the post revealed the identity of the victim and her location, and led Omran’s family to raid the residence.
The alleged culprit, a 61-year-old janitor who worked in the nearby town of El Guedid, was detained after trying to flee, the Algerian Justice Ministry said.
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. Relatives claim that the dog was poisoned after he began to smell Omar’s scent nearby.
The ministry said the investigation was still ongoing, adding that the victim was receiving medical and psychological care after the crime which it described as “heinous”.
Algerian media reported that the victim said he had been unable to call for help “due to a spell his captor had cast on him.”
Images were shared on social media and broadcast on Algerian television networks of the moment he was found in what appeared to be a hole in the ground, described by authorities as a sheep pen, inside the home of his alleged suspect. captor
The blurry video shows torches glowing in a hole surrounded by hay as Omar furtively glances up, apparently shocked by the search party surrounding him, with loose bits of straw in his hair.
Other images have since circulated of the bearded man emerging from the hole, believed to be a sheep pen, and of him as a teenager, sitting with a dog and small children before disappearing.
Information from the Algerian newspaper The Khabar suggests that the dog longed for him near the place where he was being held, having recognized his scent. His report alleged that the captor poisoned the dog to scare away the family.
A search for Omar was launched in 1998 after he disappeared while on his way to a vocational school.
According to the newspaper, the dispute over the inheritance led the family to break into the house in search of Omar. When they found him, his alleged captor attempted to flee before being restrained and then arrested.
Tragically, Omar’s mother died in 2013 without ever knowing the truth of what happened to her son. She had asked on television for information about what happened to her son, according to an Algerian newspaper. The expression.
Reports suggest that Omar learned of his mother’s death while in captivity.
A relative said on Facebook: ‘Thank God they found my cousin.
‘Bin Imran Omar is in good health after 26 years of disappearance. Waiting for details of the case and investigations.’
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.”
The case of Omar’s discovery, almost three decades after his alleged kidnapping, could mean that he is one of the captives who has been in captivity for the longest time in the world.
A statement issued by Algeria’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.”
The detained man is believed to work as a civil servant and live alone, but Algerian media suggested he was regularly seen buying enough food for two people.
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.
The case may be among the oldest kidnapping cases in the world. Eleven-year-old Jaycee Dugard was kidnapped in Meyers, California in 1991 and remained missing for over 18 years after Phillip and Nancy Garrido captured her.
Dugard was kept in depraved conditions and subjected to extreme sexual abuse, had two children with Phillip Garrido, and later said she adapted to sympathizing with her captors in order to survive.