The police rescued a 71-year-old kidnap victim and arrested eight suspected kidnappers in Taichung yesterday.
Police said the kidnappers had asked for NT$50 million in ransom and held their hostage for five days.
The man, surnamed Liao (
The Lin Shin Hospital, where Liao was hospitalized, said he was in a stable condition.
The hospital said that Liao had sustained injuries to his face because his kidnappers had covered his eyes with adhesive tape.
His wrists had also been injured by the handcuffs he was forced to wear.
"The kidnappers did not know Liao, but they selected him as their victim because they learned that he was a wealthy local landowner," a Criminal Investigation Bureau officer said.
Police said that the kidnappers had changed locations several times over the five days they held Liao -- sometimes hiding him in a large carton as they moved him -- in a bid to avoid police raids.
Liao was kidnapped on the evening of July 26, according to the police, when four men, armed with a handgun, tricked their way into his home in the Hsitun district (
Liao was with a friend, a businessman surnamed Tu (
The kidnappers tied up both Liao and Tu and drove them away in a car.
The following morning Liao's family received a telephone call from the kidnappers demanding a ransom of NT$50 million, the
police said. The kidnappers told the family to put the money into five different bank accounts.
The family paid NT$1 million into one of the bank accounts and the kidnappers released Tu that evening.
That same day, police arrested the person in whose name the bank account was registered.
He told police that he had authorized another person to use his account in exchange for cash.
At the time of the arrest, the police also established that the NT$1 million had already been transferred to another account.
The kidnappers telephoned Liao's family several more times, asking for the rest of the ransom.
On Tuesday another payment, of NT$5 million, was made.
The police located a primary suspect by checking phone records and other information. Early yesterday morning, police raided five locations in Taichung, arresting eight suspects.
Liao was found in an apartment in Huamei Street (
Chinese-language media quoted Liao as saying that the kidnappers treated him very badly, that he was "dragged around" and was not allowed to lie down for the first two days.
Police said that another sus-pect, surnamed Hsiao (
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