LYON: French prosecutors in the city of Lyon said Friday they had charged and detained seven people over the alleged kidnapping of a Swiss man for a cryptocurrency ransom.
The seven suspects — six adults and a 17-year-old — were charged and taken into custody after investigating magistrates in Lyon questioned them on Thursday.
The prosecutors’ office did not specify the charges, but it had said on Thursday they were being questioned for kidnapping, false imprisonment and extortion by an armed gang.
Officers of the elite GIGN police unit freed the 22-year-old man last Sunday in a raid in the city of Valence, southeast France, the prosecutors office told AFP.
He had been abducted the previous Thursday and once the alarm was raised, around 150 gendarmes were mobilized in the operation to find him.
His abductors had been demanding a ransom be paid in cryptocurrency, said prosecutors.
Swiss police said in a statement Friday that the affair might have had its roots in a dispute over digital assets.
They said they had contacted French police after having received a tip-off from an anonymous source a day after the kidnapping.
The victim, who lives in the Vaud canton of Switzerland, had been seriously beaten up while he was held, the statement added.
French authorities have been dealing with a string of kidnappings and extortion attempts targeting the families of wealthy individuals dealing in cryptocurrencies.
In January, kidnappers seized French crypto boss David Balland and his partner. Balland co-founded the crypto firm Ledger, valued at the time at more than $1 billion.
Balland’s kidnappers cut off his finger and demanded a hefty ransom. He was freed the next day, and his girlfriend was found tied up in the boot of a car outside Paris.
In May, the father of a man who ran a Malta-based cryptocurrency company was kidnapped by four hooded men in Paris.
The victim, whose finger was also severed by the kidnappers and for whom a ransom of several million euros was demanded, was released 58 hours later during a raid by the security forces.
Seven charged in France over crypto ransom kidnap
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Seven charged in France over crypto ransom kidnap
- Officers of the elite GIGN police unit freed the 22-year-old man last Sunday in a raid in Valence
- The victim, who lives in Switzerland, had been seriously beaten up while he was held
Cuba says a 5th person died after people on a Florida-flagged speedboat opened fire on soldiers
- Authorities in Cuba said that on Feb. 26 Cuban soldiers confronted a speedboat carrying 10 people as the vessel approached the island and opened fire on the troops
- The shooting threatened to increase tensions between US President Donald Trump and Cuban authorities
HAVANA: Cuba said a fifth person has died as a consequence of a fatal shootout last month involving a Florida-flagged speedboat that allegedly opened fire on soldiers in waters off the island nation’s north coast.
The island’s interior ministry said late Thursday in a statement that Roberto Álvarez Ávila died on March 4 as a result of his injuries. It added that the remaining injured detainees “continue to receive specialized medical care according to their health status.”
Authorities in Cuba said that on Feb. 26 Cuban soldiers confronted a speedboat carrying 10 people as the vessel approached the island and opened fire on the troops. They said the passengers were armed Cubans living in the US who were trying to infiltrate the island and “unleash terrorism”. Cuba said its soldiers killed four people and wounded six others.
“The statements made by the detainees themselves, together with a series of investigative procedures, reinforce the evidence against them,” the Cuban interior ministry said in its statement, adding that “new elements are being obtained that establish the involvement of other individuals based in the US”
Earlier this week, Cuba said it had filed terrorism charges against six suspects that were on the speedboat. The government unveiled items said to have been found on the boat, including a dozen high-powered weapons, more than 12,800 pieces of ammunition and 11 pistols.
Cuban authorities have provided few details about the shooting, but said the boat was roughly 1.6 kilometers (1 mile) northeast of Cayo Falcones, off the country’s north coast. They also provided the boat’s registration number, but The Associated Press was unable to readily verify the details because boat registrations are not public in the state of Florida.
The shooting threatened to increase tensions between US President Donald Trump and Cuban authorities. The island’s economy was until recently largely kept economically afloat by Venezuela’s oil, which is now in doubt after a US military operation deposed then-Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
