The Civil Guard has released in Seville to the Algerian writer and opposition figure Hicham Aboud, exiled in France, who had been kidnapped on Thursday at eleven thirty at night in the upper area of Barcelona. Several witnesses saw Aboud, carrying a suitcase, and asking for an address, which he could not find. At that moment, several hooded men forced him into a vehicle and took him away, shouting. The Mossos d’Esquadra, who are investigating the case, They detected the same car an hour later, passing through Vendrell (Tarragona), which led to issuing a notice to all the police. The Civil Guard released him tied up, but in good condition, in Lebrija, early in the morning on Saturday. Aboud, 69, is the author of books highly critical of the Algerian authorities, such as ‘Lthe generals mafia‘.
The dissident writer landed on Thursday at El Prat airport from Brussels. The man was traveling alone, according to police sources, and went to an address in the city of Barcelona that he never found. Several witnesses told the Mossos that they saw the man, carrying his belongings, and asking the people he passed on Raset Street for directions. Until suddenly, a vehicle appeared, from which three hooded men emerged and forcibly took him away. Initially, the Mossos suspected that it could be a mooring: an illegal detention typical of the criminal world, in which they settle debts between themselves. Nobody had called the Mossos nor were there any reports of disappearance.
But a key element gave a twist to the case: the Mossos found Aboud’s mobile phone, which he lost in the struggle with the individuals who arrested him, amidst screams. When the agents managed to access the mobile phone, they discovered that it belonged to an Algerian dissident. Almost at the same time, they learned that the Civil Guard had managed to free him in Lebrija, after a brilliant race by car from Barcelona to Andalusia, more than 900 kilometers away.
The investigation also made it possible to locate, thanks to the different cameras in the area, at least two suspects who the day before were already in the area where the writer was kidnapped. One of them is one of the two people who have been arrested in Lebrija by the Civil Guard. There, the agents observed three vehicles prepared for unloadingbut in the presence of the Civil Guard they fled the scene. The agents detained two people, and found the writer, of Algerian nationality, tied up, who told them that he had been kidnapped in Barcelona.
Dalil Essakali, French lawyer for the Algerian writer, who lives in exile in France, already said that he suspected that he had been kidnapped in Barcelona, when he landed at the El Prat airport and lost track of him. “It is not the first time that he has been the target of an attempted kidnapping,” said Essakali, who recalled that the French justice system has an open investigation into an attempted kidnapping against the writer in 2021. The Amazigh World Assembly (AMA), which represents to the Berber people, was the first to raise the alarm on Saturday by showing her concern over Aboud’s disappearance. The Mossos and the Civil Guard maintain an open investigation to determine what happened, and who else may be involved in the kidnapping.
