Physicist deported from Brazil to France awaits explanation
DOI: 10.1063/PT.5.0210101
Nature : For the past two months, particle physicist Adlène Hicheur has been under house arrest in his parents’ home in Vienne, France. He was placed there after being abruptly removed from his home in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, by police on 15 July and escorted back to France. Four years earlier Hicheur, who has dual citizenship in France and Algeria, had been convicted in a French court of colluding with Al Qaeda in terrorist attacks. After serving his prison term, he accepted a position at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) in Brazil, where he had been working for the past three years until his sudden and unexplained removal by Brazilian authorities. Researchers at the UFRJ’s Laboratory of Elementary Particles have issued a petition , which has been signed by more than 300 people, calling for Hicheur’s release.