RUSSIA: 12-YEAR-OLD SON OF A WEALTHY ISRAELI BUSINESSMAN WORKING IN RUSSIA IS FREED AFTER BEING KIDNAPPED FOR 10 MONTHS BY CHECHENS

Record ID: 399160

  • Title: RUSSIA: 12-YEAR-OLD SON OF A WEALTHY ISRAELI BUSINESSMAN WORKING IN RUSSIA IS FREED AFTER BEING KIDNAPPED FOR 10 MONTHS BY CHECHENS
  • Date: 1st June 2000
  • Summary: PENZA, (JUNE 1, 2000) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. SV: PEOPLE IN MASKS DRAGGING A CHECHEN MAN 0.05 2. SV: CHECHEN MEN BEING HELD BY POLICE 0.09 3. VARIOUS SHOTS OF THE SPECIAL OPERATION CARRIED OUT BY A SPECIAL POLICE GROUP AS THEY ARRESTED THE KIDNAPPER 0.20 4. SLV: PRIVATE HOUSE IN PENZA 0.24 5. SV/CU: MAN BEING TAKEN AWAY IN HAND
  • Embargoed: 16th June 2000 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: PENZA/MOSCOW, RUSSIA
  • Country: Russia
  • Reuters ID: LVADOUOVN0VN27PW471BEJ3VM6FJ
  • Story Text: The 12-year-old son of a wealthy Israeli businessman
    working in Russia has been freed after being kidnapped ten
    months ago by Chechens.

    Adi Sharon, son of Israeli businessman Iosif Sharon was
    released on June,1, on the Children's day.

    The special Russian police group, the OMON paramilitary
    police, learned that the boy was kept in the cellar of a
    private house of Penza, a town in western Russia.The teenager
    was kept hostage in a dark cellar for 10 months.

    Russian police believe the group which consisted of 13
    people - 5 Muscovites, two residents of Penza and six Chechens
    - might be Chechen separatists.

    Adi Sharon was pale, thin and unable to walk and had to be
    carried out of the cellar.He was clearly in a state of shock
    and when the operation started he tried to shied away from
    his rescuers, apparently afraid they would attack him.

    He had thought they were criminals coming to kill him, but when
    he heard the words "Russian police" he calmed down and let
    them carry him to freedom.He immediately phoned his father to
    let him know he was safe.

    Adi Sharon was kidnapped on August 23 last year in Moscow.

    The criminals demanded eight million dollars for his release,
    to persuade the father to pay the money they cut off Adi's
    little fingers and sent them to his father.

    According to the information received by the Special police
    group, the initiators of kidnapping were the Chechens working
    with Adi's father, Josef Sharon.

    Interior ministry officials said the kidnapping may have
    been coordinated by Chechen field commander Arbi Barayev, who
    they said had ordered his men to target Israeli citizens.

    Arbi Barayev has claimed that the systematic kidnapping of
    Jewish people will bring with it huge gains, Mikhail Suntsov
    from the ministry's organised crime department said.

    Kidnappings and ransom demands there are frequent, and
    Moscow says they are often the work of rebels looking to raise
    funds to continue the armed struggle.

    Adi has been reunited with his father and is now in Moscow
    in a hospital in intensive care ward.


  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register