Venezuela says suspects held Portuguese man in bunker for 11 months
Venezuela says suspects held Portuguese man in bunker for 11 months
June 21, 2013 11:44 PM
CARACAS: Venezuelan prosecutors have charged a woman and four men in connection with the kidnapping of a Portuguese man who was held captive in an underground bunker for nearly a year before being rescued this week.
Kidnapping and armed robberies are common in Venezuela, and the government of new President Nicolas Maduro is under pressure to reduce crime.
Authorities said the kidnappers demanded a $6.5 million ransom after they grabbed the 45-year-old victim and bundled him into a car on July 16, 2012.
The abduction occurred at a highway service station that the victim owns in the central state of Aragua, they said.
"After investigations ... the victim was found alive on the morning of June 19 in an underground bunker," the public prosecutor's office said in a statement on Friday, adding that the woman, Flor de Maria Ochoa of Colombia, was arrested at the scene.
More:
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/International/2013/Jun-21/221217-venezuela-says-suspects-held-portuguese-man-in-bunker-for-11-months.ashx#ixzz2Wt1agB65
