Weeks after the terrorist alert at Lisbon airport after a group of Algerian men made a run for freedom across the runway, another Algerian national has breached airport security and remains, for the time being, in “parts unknown”.
The incident happened two days ago, say reports, but has only been made public today.
“All police forces” are now “coordinating efforts to trace the individual” who arrived en-route from Algeria to Casablanca (Morocco).
Observador explains he was on an 11-hour stop-over at Lisbon’s Humberto Delgado airport, when “he went missing”.
A similar security breach at the end of July ended up with four men appearing before magistrates and applying for asylum.
This time as with last, authorities “guarantee that the citizen does not have links to serious crimes, like terrorism”, though no further information to back has been forthcoming.
Público suggests that the missing man may have had “support in Lisbon that allowed him to disappear so rapidly”.
Indeed, Público’s article goes into the row that has developed over which security personnel should have been watching the area from which this man went missing.
José Manuel Anes, former president of OSCOT (the security, organised crime and terrorism observatory), explains that it was a part of the complex in the charge of ‘private security’, and that this is yet another example of the need for PSP agents to be in complete control of “sensitive areas” at the capital’s international airport.
ANA airports authority however refuse to confirm or deny this, saying only that Lisbon airport “meets all security requirements” demanded by law.
José Manuel Anes points out that the missing man’s lack of any kind of criminal record does not preclude involvement in terrorist activities, but he adds that what seems most likely is that this was yet another (this time successful) attempt at illegal immigration.
The man’s end destination may well be northern Europe, Anes added.
