Spanish local police sources in Alicante province confirmed that Algerian General Abdelkader Haddad, known as “Nasser El-Djinn,” arrived in Spain between September 18th and 19th.
The Spanish website “El Confidencial” revealed that the General, considered one of the most powerful military figures in Algeria, arrived in Spain aboard a speedboat in the early hours of either September 18th or 19th, fleeing his country. The report stated that General Abdelkader Haddad’s destination was the Costa Blanca coast in Alicante, as confirmed by Algerian expatriates and local police sources, according to the newspaper. Haddad served as the Director-General of Internal Security, Algeria’s most powerful intelligence agency, for a year before his dismissal in May, for undisclosed reasons, followed by imprisonment in two military prisons, in Blida and then Béchar. He was then placed under house arrest in a villa in the upscale Deli Ibrahim district of Algiers, pending trial, without the charges against him being disclosed.
The Spanish newspaper reported that upon arrival in Alicante, the Algerian general stated that he “decided to flee because he knew he would be killed before appearing before a judge, and that his death would be presented as suicide.” The newspaper highlighted that Haddad knows Spain well, owns property there, and had previously sought refuge in Alicante at the end of the last decade to avoid the purge carried out by the then-Chief of Staff Ahmed Gaïd Salah after the overthrow of General Mohamed Mediane in 2015 and the dismantling of the “DRS” agency. Spain is a favored haven for many Algerian military and political figures to purchase property and seek refuge when needed, the source noted, recalling that General Khaled Nezzar, former Chief of Staff and Minister of Defense, settled in Barcelona in 2019, was later imprisoned in his country, and returned before his death in December 2023.
The Algerian journalist Farid Alilat suggested that Haddad’s dismissal was due to his launching of investigations into corruption and manipulation involving individuals close to and collaborating with the head of state, which was considered a threat to the interests and roles of the powerful elite in Algeria. The general’s escape caused considerable controversy among Algeria’s highest authorities and led security and military institutions to declare an unprecedented state of alert in order to search for him, especially after reports from certain sources that he was still in the country waiting for an opportunity to escape.
