Maputo, 6 Dec (AIM) – The Mozambican Police (PRM) has detained a 30-year-old woman for allegedly trying to kidnap three minors in Moatize district, in the central province of Tete.
The woman, according to a report in the independent daily “O País”, intended to charge 150,000 meticais (about 2,350 US dollars at the current exchange rate) for the ransom of each of the victims, “in order to pay off her debts.”
The incident took place last Friday, when the woman convinced three teenagers aged between 14 and 15 to join a supposed perfume resale business. However, according to a Police spokesperson, her true intention was to kidnap them and ransom them to pay off her debts.
“When the three minors arrived at the woman’s house, she kept them for a period of around 10 hours against their will, and at night, when she intended to transfer them to another location, the minors ended up running away at a petrol station”, said the spokesperson.
According to one of the victims, “we met a lady who intercepted us and said she was looking for people to order perfumes, we accepted but said we needed to consult our parents first. Then we gave the lady our contact details, and when it was 1pm she called us to her house. When we got there, she locked us in and rang our parents, then said that our parents weren’t co-operating, so she was going to deliver us when it was 8pm.”
However, the accused woman denied any involvement in the case. “I didn’t do anything, I didn’t take the girls”, she said.
(AIM)
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