Officials have arrested a 61-year-old man suspected of keeping him prisoner.

A man has been found alive in his neighbour’s cellar after going missing about 26 years ago.

Omar bin Omran disappeared from Djelfa, in Algeria, during the Algerian civil war in the 1990s, when he was in his late teens.

Now aged 45, Mr Bin Omran has been discovered just 200m from where he grew up.

Officials confirmed they had arrested a 61-year-old man suspected of keeping him prisoner.

Mr Bin Omran’s disappearance came in the middle of a decade-long conflict between Algeria’s government and Islamist groups.

His family feared he had been among an estimated 200,000 killed, or as many as 20,000 kidnapped, during the unrest.

But he was found hidden in a sheepfold under haystacks on 12 May, according to reports.

  • AbidanYre@lemmy.worldEnglish
    119·
    6 months ago

    Mr Bin Omran told his rescuers he had at times seen his family from his prison, but claimed he had been unable to call out for help “because of a spell that his captor had cast on him”, local media reported.

    What the fuck?

      • Delusional@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1037·
        6 months ago

        Yeah but that ain’t superstitious that’s just being dumb as shit. Like how did he even arrive at that dumbass conclusion? Did the guy tell him he cast a spell and he just accepted it or did he try to yell and no one heard him so he thought, “yup that’s a spell right there.”

        • TheFriar@lemm.eeEnglish
          45·
          6 months ago

          I can’t imagine the mental anguish this man had gone through. I can’t imagine the toll it took on his general sanity. He probably would’ve believed anything. And a mind in turmoil, under torture? Is capable of insane things, I’m sure. Who knows what went on up until that point. He was probably fucking destroyed. And here you are, calling him dumb as shit. Gross.

      • insomniac_lemon@kbin.social
        32·
        6 months ago

        Reminder on Stockholm syndrome:

        According to accounts by Kristin Enmark (one of the hostages): the police were acting incompetently, with little care for the hostages’ safety.

        She had criticized the police for pointing guns at the convicts while the hostages were in the line of fire, and she had told news outlets that one of the captors tried to protect the hostages from being caught in the crossfire

        but the prime minister [Palme] told her that she would have to content herself with dying at her post rather than Palme giving in to the captors’ demands.

        Ultimately, Enmark explained she was more afraid of the police, whose attitude seemed to be a much larger, direct threat to her life than the robbers.

        Which could possibly be relevant here, particularly the civil war part.

    • LesserAbe@lemmy.worldEnglish
      39·
      6 months ago

      Sorry to further bum but this article says his dog was lingering around the neighbors house after the kidnapping so it’s suspected the neighbor killed the dog. It was found poisoned in front of their house.

      This article says the only reason the kidnapper’s family member snitched was because of an inheritance dispute.

  • MrJameGumb@lemmy.worldEnglish
    32·
    6 months ago

    I had never heard of a “sheepfold” before so I looked it up. A sheepfold is just like a sheep pen. Like without a roof and usually just a few feet high. Either the article used the word incorrectly or there is a ton they are leaving out here. Maybe it had something to do with his captors magic spell?

    • OpenStars@discuss.onlineEnglish
      30·
      6 months ago

      It could be that the sheepfold concealed an entrance to an underground cellar? There are several parts of this story that are not easily understood by us outsiders.

  • KoboldCoterie@pawb.socialEnglish
    26·
    6 months ago

    His family feared he had been among an estimated 200,000 killed, or as many as 20,000 kidnapped, during the unrest.

    It seems they were correct…