Hassaine, a reporter with the daily Alger Républicain, was kidnapped by unknown assailants. CPJ originally believed that Hassaine had been murdered based on his colleagues’ reports of discovering Hassaine’s decapitated body. But during interviews in the capital, Algiers, in October 1998, CPJ learned that Hassaine’s body was in fact never found, and that there has been no evidence confirming his death.
