Gourdel’s last moments in life
Oussama. D. is a 23-year-old man born in Boufarik (Blida). He stopped studying at the second year of high school. He has a computer hard ware shop and practice hiking. He accompanied the French national who was executed by a terrorist group on Wednesday. “It was sad to hear the killing of my friend and guest. Me too, I was kidnapped. Unfortunately, some foreign media accused me,” he told Echorouk on Monday.
The young man’s father and family said they were living in fear after they had heard that the French national was kidnapped in Tizi Ouzou.
Oussama was affected by the death of his friend. “I have known Hervé Gourdel since January. We were friends on the Internet. I always talked to him on Facebook,” he said.
He added that he was impressed by Hervé’s personality and intellectual level. “Working out was a common point between us. We both like photography. Gourdel wanted to visit Algeria and climb Tikejda mountains.”
On September 20th, the French national arrived and found Oussama, his neighbor and friend Karim waiting for him at the Algiers Houari Boumediene Airport. Then, they went to a commercial center in Bouira (125 km east of Algiers) to buy food for the trip.
According to Oussama, the team planned two days to localize the climbing sites, two days to walk in the area, two days to explore mountain caverns and two more days to visit Algiers.
“Hervé had visited Algeria in 1989. He asked us to take him to Casbah area. He was supposed to spend the last day in Boufarik to come back to France on October 1st.”
“We went to a chalet in Tikejda by a rented car.”
At around 6 pm, the French national and his companions walked for 30 minutes next to the chalet. They spent the night there. The following day at 9 am, they got ready for the plan. Yet, they change it because of rains. So, they went to Ait Ourbane forests.
“We did not understand what happened. A terrorist group surrounded us. They told us they belong to Jound Al-Khilafa affiliated to Abu Baker Al-Baghdadi. They did not ask for our identity cards neither our money nor cell phones.”
“We begged the terrorists to release Gourdel. We quarreled with them but in vain. He did not utter a word,” said Oussama.
He denied French news reports that the kidnappers held them for 14 hours before their release. “My cell phone and laptop was seized and the investigation will prove that I am innocent.”
Oussama decided to stop hiking. “What happened was a serious thing. The beheading of Hervé is something horrible. I have become a suspect and I lost a close friend. He treated me like my father,” he said.