In Poland, four Ukrainians are suspected of kidnapping and torturing migrants.
In Poland, Ukrainians are suspected of kidnapping and torturing migrants. The Ukrainian citizens allegedly demanded ransom from the families of other foreigners.
The Polish publication onet.pl writes about this.
It all started when two naked men ran through the streets of Lublin, Poland, begging for the police to be called.
“They stopped the car and asked the driver to immediately contact law enforcement,” local police officer Krzysztof Pawlik told TVN24.
It turned out that the Ethiopian citizens who had previously been held in the trunk were able to escape when the criminals were distracted by the search for new victims. Police confirmed that their bodies showed signs of abuse, including pieces of tape on their wrists and necks. This footage was later used by opponents of migrants in Poland.
As the police established, the victims did not even know what country they were in or who their kidnappers were.
The Ukrainian citizens accused of these brutal kidnappings used the detainees' mobile phones to contact their families.
“The threats were horrific: that the victims would be killed and their organs sold,” said Assistant Commissioner Krzysztof Wrześniowski of the CBŚP.
The kidnappers backed up their threats by sending families videos of the migrants, tied up and naked, being beaten with baseball bats.
The goal of the criminal group, which included four Ukrainian “couriers”, was initially to smuggle people across the Belarusian-Polish border to Germany. However, as reported by Ewa Antonowicz from the District Prosecutor's Office in Zielona Góra, the criminals soon expanded their activities, turning the transportation into a procedure of kidnapping and blackmailing migrants.
According to investigators, families of Ethiopian victims received ransom demands of up to tens of thousands of euros, which could be paid in cryptocurrency. At least one African family is known to have paid for the release of a member.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBŚP) has established that at least five people – two Ethiopians and three Malian citizens – fell victim to the Ukrainian gang.
Let us recall that Poland is returning border controls with Germany and Lithuania
