Latest / Crime Night / Football Derby Hides Algeria Abduction

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Football Derby Hides Algeria Abduction · Crime Night

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: March seventh, twenty thirteen. We're in Algeria, early evening, and
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: you have to picture the scene not by what you
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: can hear, but by what you can't exactly.
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: There's this this profound quiet, an unnatural stillness on streets
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: that should be bustling.
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: It's the sound of a city holding its breath. And
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: the reason for it is a massive football derby, one
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: of those huge historic rivalries.
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: Right, so almost every adult male in the entire region
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: is glued to a screen. Their attention is completely utterly elsewhere.
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: And it wasn't just them, the security forces, the police,
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: they were all redeployed to the stadium because you know
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: these matches have a history of violence.
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: They absolutely do. So you have this, this vacuum. The
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: streets are basically unguarded, exposed a calculated window of opportunity.
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: It's in that precise window that two best friends, Harutin
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: who is ten and Ibraham just nine, are outside their
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: homes just playing.
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: They have no idea, no idea that this collective obsession
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: with a game has created the one moment, the unprotected hour,
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: that makes them a target.
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: And this is why this case just exploded. It became
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: I mean one of the biggest public opinion cases in
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: modern algery and.
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: History, because the timing wasn't an accident, it was deliberate.
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: It was chillingly effective.
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: Okay, let's unpack this. How how did it actually happen?
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: How did they manage to pull off the abduction so cleanly?
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: Well, the critical thing to understand is the psychology of it.
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: They didn't use force, they used trust.
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: So a man approaches them, someone nobody recognizes, a face foreign.
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: To the area, and he doesn't look like a monster,
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: He just looks lost. The pretext is so simple, so benign.
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: He asks for directions.
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: And Harun and Ibrahem being kids, you know, they want
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: to help. They start pointing the way, and he uses.
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: That that little thread of connection. He doesn't just thank
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: them and leave. He starts walking with them, asking more
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: questions about the area, and in doing so, he just
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: gently separates them from the other kids.
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: It's a smooth manipulation.
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: Completely. He keeps up this appearance of just normal conversation.
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: And then he asked them just walk me to the
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: spot quickly and come right back. It sounds so casual,
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: so harmless, and.
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: The boys they just they went with them.
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: They went willingly. Their trust was perfectly exploited.
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: But one of their friends, one of the other kids
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: playing nearby, he felt something was wrong, a real sense
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: of dread.
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: And that anxiety didn't come from nowhere. You have to
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: remember the context. There were all these stories going around
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: at the time about kidnappings.
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: So parents were already on edge, very on edge.
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: They were constantly warning their children don't talk to strangers,
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: so that fear was already in the air, and this
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: one kid he felt it.
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: He waits, he expects to see them come right back,
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: but they don't. Yeah, and that's when the panic sets in.
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: He runs to their homes.
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: And of course the fathers are all at the match,
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: so he tells the mothers a ter must have been immediate, instantaneous.
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: They drop everything. They start calling their husband, saying, forget
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: the match, you have to come home now. Something terrible has.
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: Happened, and the community just mobilizes. Fathers leave the stadium
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: mid game, they pour back into the air and this desperate,
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: frantic search begins.
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: The official report is filed at six pm. Police get
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: the statement from the young witness. He confirms the whole
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: lord the directions, but he can't give a good description
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: of the.
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: Man, just the interaction itself.
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: Right, So police residents, they're all out there. They bring
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: in the canine units, the police dogs, hoping to get
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: a cent trail, and at.
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: First they do. The dogs pick up the scent of
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: Harun and Ibrahim perfectly. They follow the exact path the
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: boys took on foot.
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: It's working. They have a solid trail.
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: Until they don't. In the middle of a screen, the
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: dogs just stop dead.
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: The trail vanishes, and for an investigator, that means one thing.
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  Speaker 2: It's a huge clue. It means they were on foot
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: to that point, and then they weren't.
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: They got into a car.
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: They got into a car willingly or by force. Their
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: scent is no longer on the ground. The trail is gone.
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: And police confirm that pretty quickly. Right, there was an eyewitness.
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: There was someone who saw two boys get into a
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: car at that exact spot.
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: And here's the part that is just so gut wrenching.
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  Speaker 1: The witness said they saw no.
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  Speaker 2: Struggle, no struggle, no signs of distress, nothing.
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: It just looked normal.
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: It looked completely normal. And that's what the perpetrators were
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: banking on. The distraction of the city and the absolute
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: trust of a child. But five days go by, five
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: days of this agonizing search, and that initial fear starts
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: to turn into this crushing dread.
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: The pressure must have been enormous, immense.
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: The media is all over it. The police dragnet is
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: getting wider and wider, and that pressure is what forced
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: the kidnapper's hand.
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: The break comes on the night of Tuesday, March twelfth.
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: An anonymous tip comes into the police.
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah, from some workers at a workshop. They saw something
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: suspicious near a construction site next to their shop.
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: They saw a car pull up.
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: A car pulls up, two men get out and they
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: dump two things quickly, a big green suitcase and another
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: plastic bag like from a clothing store. Then they just
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: sped off.
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: When residents finally got close enough to see what had
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: been left behind, I mean, that's when the worst fears
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: of the entire country were realized.
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: It was horrific. Inside those bags were the remains of
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: Harun and Ibrahim.
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: The details are brutal. One child in the suitcase dismembered,
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: the head severed, the other in the plastic bag in
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: the exact same condition.
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: The post mortem report just deep in the horror cause
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: of death for both boys with strangulation.
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: And there was more. The report confirmed they had both
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: been repeatedly sexually assaulted before they were killed.
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: The whole country just felt this deep personal violation.
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: And this is where the story takes a turn that
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  Speaker 1: is just I mean, it's a breathtaking display of sociopathy.
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: In the days right after the bodies were found, with
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: the whole community and shock, one of the killers was
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: walking among them.
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  Speaker 2: Unbelievable.
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: He was at the morning gatherings, pretending to search, pretending
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: to console the family.
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  Speaker 2: It's a classic narcissistic trait, killing the victim and then
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: walking in their funeral. He needed to be there to
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: see the chaos he'd created, but he.
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: Gets sloppy or maybe just arrogant. The workshop employee, the
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: one who saw them dump the bags, she's looking at
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: a random video someone in the crowd had filmed.
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: Right just a bystander cell phone footage of the crowd
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: around where the bodies were found.
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: And she spots him.
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  Speaker 2: She recognizes him, the man from the car, standing right
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: there in the crowd of mourners.
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: He calls the police immediately they move in. They apprehend him,
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: and he confesses and he confirms he wasn't alone.
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: And now we have the names Mamin thirty eight years old,
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: a known drug dealer with a long rap sheet, and
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: his accomplice, a twenty one year old named Hamza.
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: Hamza whose nickname prophetically was Caritha.
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: Which means catastrophe, and the.
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: Pieces start to fit. Hamsa's family had been suspicious. He'd
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: just gotten out of prison and suddenly he's driving this
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: expensive car. Where did that money come from?
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: Which leads us right to the motive. And the thing
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: is this wasn't just a crime of opportunity or perversion.
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: It was about preserving a power dynamic.
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: Explain that what was the relationship between Memin and Hamsa.
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: They were living together in Mamen's apartment. May mean was
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: the provider. He paid for everything, the rent, the car, everything.
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: Hamza was completely dependent.
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: On him, So there's a clear financial dependency. But what
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: was the state of their relationship.
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: It was falling apart. According to Hamsa's confession, Mekamene was
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: getting tired of him. He was thinking of ending the arrangement.
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: So Hams is feeling desperate. He's about to lose his housing,
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: his car, his entire lifestyle.
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: Exactly he's panicking and to try and secure his position,
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  Speaker 2: to re establish his value to Mechamin, he makes this
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  Speaker 2: horrifying proposal.
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  Speaker 1: He offers to find children.
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: He offers to find children for may Ca mean to assault.
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  Speaker 2: It's a transaction and act designed purely to appease, make nean,
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  Speaker 2: and keep his own comfortable situation going. It's a crime
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: born from self preservation, and the.
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: Football match was the perfect cover. The empty streets that
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: distracted police. But the murders. That wasn't part of the
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  Speaker 1: original plan, was it.
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: No, that was an act of panic. The media coverage
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: after the boys disappeared was so intense, the police dragonet
• 8:05
  Speaker 2: was so massive. They realized they were trapped.
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: They couldn't hold onto the children any longer without being discovered.
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  Speaker 2: They couldn't, so they killed them to dispose of the evidence.
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  Speaker 2: It was a cover up for the initial calculated crime,
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  Speaker 2: a chillingly rational decision in their minds.
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: First they calculated the best time to abduct them, then
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  Speaker 1: they calculated the necessary brutality to get rid of them.
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  Speaker 2: It's a sustained, deliberate chain of events, all driven by
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: this toxic, dysfunctional relationship.
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: The arrests, though they didn't bring any real closure. The
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: whole country felt this loss. There were massive protests, riots,
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: even demanding justice.
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: And the courts delivered what the public was screaming for.
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  Speaker 2: Both Momin and Hamza were convicted and sentenced to death.
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: But and this is the final frustrating twist in this story,
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: the sentence was never carried out right.
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: And this is because of a specific feature of Algerian law.
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: It's been a moratorium on all executions since nineteen ninety.
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: Three, a policy put in place for reasons that had
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: nothing to do with a crime like this.
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: It was a product of the Algerian Civil War and
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: subsequent international pressure. So even though the court gives the
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: death sentence, the state itself will not carry it out.
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: So mum And and Hams are soul alive.
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: They are alive today serving perpetual sentences in prison, which
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: creates this incredible tension in society. The system has acknowledged
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: the horror of the crime with its harshest sentence, but
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: a legal mechanism frozen in time prevents what the public
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: sees as the final act of justice.
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: So what does this all mean? It leaves you with
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: a really challenging question to think about when public outrage
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: over a crime this horrific is so overwhelming. What is
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: the ultimate purpose of justice when legal policy enacted decades
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: earlier for entirely different reasons, stands in direct conflict with
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: that moral demand for finality