A Taiwanese businessman who was rescued from an uninhabited islet in Penghu County on Tuesday after having been held by kidnappers for 53 days has not yet recovered from the shock of his ordeal, a prosecutor said yesterday.
Wang Chun-li (王俊力), deputy head of the Kaohsiung District Prosecutors’ Office, offered the assessment after meeting with the kidnap victim, identified only by his surname, Hsia (夏).
“Hsia appears to still be badly shaken and is reluctant to divulge details of what happened, probably out of fear of retaliation from his abductors,” Wang said.
The prosecutor cited Hsia as saying that he was not tortured during the 53 days he was kept aboard a fishing boat drifting at sea. He was offered food and drinks, but was not allowed to move freely.
A preliminary investigation has shown that the 40-year-old businessman was kidnapped from his residence in Guangzhou, China on Jan. 8.
Later in the month, his family in Taiwan received a ransom demand for NT$300 million (US$10.13 million) and remitted NT$100 million to the kidnappers by the end of the month, local police said. Guangdong Province police then contacted their Taiwanese counterparts, who asked the Kaohsiung District Prosecutors’ Office to investigate.
Through the collaboration of law enforcement authorities on both sides of the Taiwan Strait, 10 suspects were arrested, including three in Taiwan.
The trio refused to divulge Hsia’s whereabouts, but investigators eventually obtained critical information that helped authorities find Hsia on the uninhabited Penghu islet on Tuesday.
Hsia had been dumped there by individuals who remain at large, local media reported.
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