Algeria's governor kidnapped: report
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Xinhua, January 17, 2012
The governor of Algeria's southeastern region of Illizi, Ahmed Khelifi, was kidnapped on Monday evening, when he was conducting a working visit to Debdab locality on border with Libya, local media reported Tuesday.
The local Ennahar newspaper quoted Algerian security sources as saying that some family members of Abdelhamid Abu Zeid, a senior official of al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, are behind the kidnapping.
The sources added that the governor of Illizi, 1,800 km southeast of Algiers, arrived at Debdab locality to calm down a protest there over the conviction of some youngsters with terrorism charges, before he and his chief of protocol were kidnapped and taken to Libyan territory.
The kidnapping took place when the governor approached the protesters, including family members of Abu Zeid, to talk to them, and ordered security services to stay away, which facilitated the kidnapping, the report said.
Abu Zeid was convicted in absentia to a life sentence in Jan. 2 over charges of forming an international terror group and kidnapping a group of Western tourists in 2003. Another five members of his family were sentenced to five years in prison.
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