Mönchengladbach/Essen (dpa/lnw) - The criminal police in Essen and Mönchengladbach are currently dealing with a somewhat puzzling case of an alleged hostage-taking. A then 24-year-old man from Oberhausen is said to have been in the hands of seven men aged 20 to 33 between April 7 and 11, 2022 and taken to several apartments in Mönchengladbach and Jüchen (Rhein-Kreis Neuss). be. The police and public prosecutor's office in Mönchengladbach announced this on Friday.
In the course of the investigation, between April 8 and May 23, 14 search warrants for apartments in Mönchengladbach, Jüchen and Linnich (Düren district) were carried out - some with the support of special units - it said. Arrest warrants had been issued against four of the seven suspects. The arrest warrants for three of these suspects were suspended, and in one case the arrest warrant was revoked.
The trigger for the investigation was the 32-year-old brother of the "presumably injured party," as the authorities cautiously put it. On April 8, he reported to the police in Oberhausen that his younger brother had been "possibly taken abroad" by unknown perpetrators. The background to the crime is said to have been financial claims from various creditors, from whom the now 25-year-old borrowed four-digit amounts and did not repay them.
Whether the man from Oberhausen, who is free again and is currently being questioned according to dpa information, was actually kidnapped in a neighboring country is still the subject of further investigations, it said. The accused are said to have threatened to cause various types of damage to the Oberhausener's health.
The suspects are said to have backed up demands for money from the alleged victim's family by injuring the victim with various objects. Since the accused came from the personal environment of the Oberhausener, they could be identified promptly, the authorities said. The public prosecutor's office did not want to give any further details when asked.
