TNR Watch: Diplomatic Crisis

Tit-for-tat: French prosecutors indicted an Algerian consular official and two other Algerian nationals in April for their alleged involvement in the kidnapping of an Algerian influencer outside of Paris. Amir Boukhors, who faces nine international arrest warrants issued by Algiers over his opposition to Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, was reportedly abducted last April by four men outside of Paris and stuffed in a car. The refugee’s captors drugged him and placed him in what he called “a container” for 24 hours before releasing him in the middle of the night.

In response to the consular officer’s indictment and arrest, the Algerian government expelled 12 French consular representatives in April. Algeria’s foreign ministry accused France of seeking to “humiliate” the country and of bypassing established diplomatic channels. A day after the Algerian government’s move, France announced the expulsion of 12 Algerian diplomats and the recall of its ambassador from Algiers. In May, both governments executed another round of diplomatic expulsions in relation to the crisis.

Another Algerian abducted: Boukhors was not the only Algerian dissident to be snatched off the streets of a major European city in 2024. On October 17, four hooded men kidnapped journalist Hichem Aboud in Barcelona and forced him into a vehicle. Two days later, Spain’s Civil Guard stumbled upon Aboud, shirtless on the banks of the Guadalquivir River outside of Seville. Spanish law enforcement detained a Moroccan national and a Senegalese national at the scene of the rescue, but Aboud, known for his criticism of the Algerian regime’s abuses, believes the country’s authorities managed the operation. The Algerian government is responsible for four entries in Freedom House’s database of transnational repression incidents, dating back to 2014.

Raising awareness: The Algerian consular official’s indictment and arrest by French law enforcement reflects a recent increase in attention paid to transnational repression in France. At the end of 2024, the French general directorate for internal security launched a webpage, available in several languages, about transnational repression and how to report incidents. Additionally, French and international media have been following a complaint refiled to a Paris court in March 2025 by two Uyghur activists, Gulbahar Jelilova and Dilnur Reyhan, who accuse the Chinese Embassy of aggressively disrupting a protest the two had organized during Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping’s visit to Paris in May 2024.