Four arrested on kidnapping

TIRANA, Aug. 2 – The Greek Police Crimes Against Life Department on Monday announced that they had cracked a kidnapping case that took place in Attica last May when a 67-year-old doctor was taken and held for ransom.
They said that five suspects had been identified, of which four had been arrested in neighboring Bulgaria and were due to be extradited to Greece.
The four men arrested were all of Albanian nationality, aged 20, 22, 23 and 28 years old, respectively.
The 67-year-old was taken captive while cultivating a plot of land in Stamata and taken to a remote location deep in a forest at Agios Merkourios where his captives had set up a space where he would be kept hostage.
The kidnappers left him there and he was found by police after his family had paid a ransom of 1,360,800 euro that had been left in another remote, uninhabited location in Attica.
A police investigation quickly uncovered the identity of the suspects, who had fled to Albania on the day after they released their victim. International arrest warrants were issued and Greek police officers went to Albania, where in collaboration with local police forces they continued their search.
They tracked the suspects and discovered that they had left on a charter flight to Turkey on July 8, on holiday at a luxury hotel on the Turkish coast. They did not return to Albania as planned but continued their holiday by visiting Istanbul, where they stayed at more luxury hotels.
The four suspects were finally arrested on July 30 as they crossed the borders of Bulgaria and Macedonia. The process for their extradition to Greece has already begun.