A 20-year-old Antwerp suspect was arrested by the investigating judge of Hasselt and placed in detention, suspected of having participated in the kidnapping and forcible confinement of a 13-year-old boy from Genk, lawyer Jan Keulen confirmed Monday evening.
In the morning, seven people were intercepted, including three brothers from Antwerp, a man from Zutendaal and a person described as a “Muslim extremist” from Maaseik.
During the night of Monday April 20 to Tuesday April 21, masked and heavily armed individuals entered the parents’ home and forcibly took their 13-year-old son into a stolen car. The adolescent’s confinement lasted 42 days. Contacts took place during this period between the kidnappers and the family to demand a ransom. The boy’s father and uncle had previously been convicted in an international drug trafficking case, the amounts of their earnings revealed during the trial would have attracted the gang.
Millions of euros would have been demanded, at least part of which would have been paid. So the boy was dropped off by Genk by car shortly after midnight Monday. The adolescent then walked home.
“My client knows some people who are apparently involved in the kidnapping and forcible confinement. He is a trio of Limburgers, whom he knows. There are concrete elements which link him to the case, but which need to be clarified. We understand that these matters need to be investigated. My client says he is ready to cooperate in this investigation. He will appear before the Tongeren Council Chamber on Friday, “said lawyer Jan Keulen, familiar with the abduction business.
The lawyer had in the past defended Jefke Peeters from Zonhoven, who had been involved in the kidnapping and forcible confinement of Anthony De Clerck, son of the textile magnate Jan De Clerck, in 1992. After 32 days, he had was released in exchange for the payment of a ransom of 6 million euros
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