According to the gendarmerie, twelve people were charged last week in Lyon in connection with the investigation into the kidnapping and sequestration of a young Swiss man last summer in France to obtain a ransom in cryptocurrency. Three of the twelve suspects have been placed in pre-trial detention and the other nine have been placed under judicial supervision. A total of 19 suspects have been charged in this case, after the first seven, including a 17-year-old minor, who were imprisoned this summer as part of an investigation opened in August by the prosecutor's office of the Lyon Specialized Interregional Jurisdiction.
Last summer, a young Swiss man, aged 22, was kidnapped in a location and under circumstances that have not been revealed. He was then sequestered from August 28 to 31 before being released near the Valence (Drôme) train station during an operation by the GIGN, the elite unit of the national gendarmerie. ' The young man, residing in the canton of Vaud, was 'seriously mistreated and injured' during his captivity, according to Swiss police.
The exact amount of cryptocurrency ransom demanded has not been disclosed. These twelve new charges follow the 18 arrests made on Monday, March 2 in Ile-de-France and the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region.