Mozambique | Just In: Armed robbers snatch 1 million meticais cash in Tete city - Watch
Folha de Maputo
The Mozambican police announced on Monday that they have arrested three people suspected of involvement in a kidnapping in the central city of Beira last month.
Speaking at his regular weekly press briefing, the spokesperson for the Maputo City Police Command, Orlando Mudumane, said that after the kidnapping the leaders of the gang left Beira for Maputo where they handled negotiations over a ransom.
Mudumane said the kidnapping occurred on 25 May. He did not name the victim, but the only kidnapping in Beira reported on that date was of a nine year old child, who is the grandson of a Beira businessman who owns a shop called Motichande.
The kidnappers seized the child from outside his home in the neighbourhood of Ponta-Gea as he was preparing to leave for school in the company of his younger brother. The brother managed to evade capture.
Mudumane told reporters that the victim had been released – but only after the kidnap gang had extorted six million meticais (about 105,000 US dollars) from his family.
He said that immediately after the kidnap, part of the gang headed for Maputo, and negotiated the ransom in phone calls from the capital. Other kidnappers kept the child imprisoned until the ransom was paid. These people have not yet been detained.
The wave of kidnappings in Mozambican cities began in late 2011. The victims have mostly been businessmen of Asian origin, or members of their families.
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