فاس نيوز ميديا جريدة الكترونية جهوية تعنى بشؤون و أخبار جهة فاس مكناس – متجددة على مدار الساعة
Paris, France: Three men have been formally placed under investigation in Paris, suspected of involvement in the kidnapping of Algerian influencer Amir Boukhors, a well-known opponent of the ruling regime in Algeria.
The three individuals under investigation face charges of arrest, kidnapping, sequestration, or arbitrary detention in connection with a terrorist enterprise, as well as criminal terrorist association.
“A state affair” or “an empty file”? Three men, one of whom works in one of Algeria’s consulates in France, were indicted on Friday in Paris, suspected of involvement in the late April 2024 kidnapping on French soil of Algerian regime opponent and influencer Amir Boukhors. They are being prosecuted for arrest, kidnapping, sequestration, or arbitrary detention followed by release before the seventh day, in connection with a terrorist enterprise, the National Anti-Terrorist Prosecutor’s Office (Pnat) confirmed on Saturday, corroborating information obtained by AFP from sources close to the case. They are also indicted for criminal terrorist association.
On Friday evening, a judge for freedoms and detention ordered the provisional detention of these men, aged between their fifties and sixties, an AFP journalist observed. One of them works in an Algerian consulate in France, according to several sources close to the case. “The issue of diplomatic immunity will arise in the proceedings” for this suspect, who does not benefit from a diplomatic passport but a service passport, one of the sources emphasized.
The investigation also led to a Franco-Algerian “father,” “close” to this consulate member, according to several sources close to the case. The third suspect knew the first two. Analysis of cell phone location data led investigators to the Algerian consulate, AFP learned from a source close to the case. Of the four individuals taken into custody, as revealed by the newspaper Le Parisien, one has been released.
“Such a serious situation”
Amir Boukhors, alias “Amir DZ,” is an Algerian influencer based in France since 2016, whose return Algeria has sought to try him. Algiers has issued nine international arrest warrants against him, accusing him of fraud and terrorist offenses. In 2022, the French justice system refused his extradition. Amir DZ obtained political asylum in 2023. The 41-year-old, followed by over a million subscribers on TikTok, “was the subject of two serious attacks, one in 2022 and another on the evening of April 29, 2024,” his lawyer Éric Plouvier told AFP.
The investigation, initially opened by the Créteil prosecutor’s office, was taken over by the Pnat last February. “This judicial turning point, with the arrest of agents linked to the Algerian regime and their presentation to a judge, reveals that the events of April 29, 2024, are a state affair,” asserted Me Plouvier. “Algeria did not hesitate to carry out violent action on French soil through intimidation and terror,” the lawyer denounced. Algiers first “tried to neutralize him with arrest warrants” and then, faced with the refusal to extradite him, “wanted to come and get him directly on French soil by kidnapping him,” the counsel argued.
“The situation is so serious that the Pnat has taken over,” stressed Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau, on the sidelines of a trip to the Tarn region. “I leave it to the judicial authority to unravel the threads of this affair,” “perhaps” linked to an “act of foreign interference,” he added.
Kidnapped on April 29, 2024, in the Val-de-Marne region, the influencer was released the following day. In his complaint, consulted by AFP, Amir DZ told police that his kidnappers “feigned surprise” upon discovering his identity, initially thinking “he had hijacked a drug truck,” before releasing him.
Another investigation linked to the consulate
On Saturday, a source close to the case urged caution after the three indictments, fearing that the subsequent investigations might reveal “an empty file,” with the suspects appearing as scapegoats. The lawyers for the accused, including Véronique Massi and Clotilde Garnier, declined to comment. Amir Boukhors’s name recently appeared in another judicial investigation opened by the Paris prosecutor’s office.
In this case, an employee of the French Ministry of Economy was indicted in December, suspected of providing information on opponents of the Algerian regime, including Amir Boukhors, to “a person of Algerian nationality working at the Algerian consulate in Créteil,” according to the prosecutor’s office. According to a source close to this investigation, this agent asked the Bercy employee for information on Algerian nationals, including known opponents such as Amir Boukhors and Mohamed Larbi Zitout, as well as a refugee journalist, an Algerian who filed a complaint in France against a general, and personalities like influencer Chawki Benzehra. These individuals have, for “some,” been “victims of violence and threats.”
