The three men (22, 24 and 37 years old) kidnapped a student in Groningen earlier this year and threatened to torture and kill him, to extort money via bitcoin
Translated by Adriana Dancu
The victim, an International student in Groningen, was dragged into a car on Parkweg in Groningen, stabbed with a knife, and assaulted before being locked up in a house on Kometenstraat, where he was abused. When the police managed to free him after more than two days, the boy was tied up and blindfolded on a bed.
The suspects come from Groningen, Hoogezand and Schiedam, reports the Dagblad van het Noorden.
Bitcoin
The purpose of the kidnapping was to collect 250,000 US Dollars in bitcoin, having first asked for 1 million (and then 500,000). The kidnappers reached out to the student’s father, an entrepreneur in Pakistan. Via a police report in London, the Groningen police managed to free the student with the help of a specialized team.
No ransom was paid, however. The victim studied at the art academy Minerva, and has left Groningen and has returned to Pakistan. He followed the trial through a Skype connection to the courtroom.
The suspects did not deny the accusations, but said that the co-suspects had a larger share. An acquaintance of the victim- who had met each other in Dubai- is said to have devised the plan, together with a man from Schiedam who had major financial problems. The third suspect is an entrepreneur from the Groningen city center.
The victim
The question of whether the suspects actually intended to kill their victim in the absence of payment was denied. “We probably would have left him in a remote place with some money so that he could go home,” said one of the suspects.
The chainsaw found in the house was, according to this suspect, only intended to scare the victim and his father. The judge in Groningen has given the suspects sentences of 9 years (DVHN).
Image via Wikimedia user Dickelbers. License here.