Four German pensioners on trial for abducting assets manager
Traunstein, Germany (dpa) - Four wealthy German pensioners who were infuriated when their investments disappeared last year in the middle of the recession went on trial Monday for allegedly kidnapping their asset manager and holding him hostage in a dungeon.
The two couples admit they bound and gagged the 56-year-old manager and drove him halfway across Germany in the boot of a car.
The retirees forced him to sign documents promising to repay them nearly 2.5 million euros (3.5 million dollars).
A police armed squad freed the hostage in June after a three-day ordeal near Chiemsee, an upscale resort lake in the south-east of Germany.
The 74-year-old leader of the gang later told police both couples were certain it was the asset manager′s fault their money was lost.
The trial in Traunstein is set to continue till March 23. The trial of one of the male defendants was suspended because he is ill.
Prosecutors say the retirees seized their investment adviser in his apartment near Speyer, locked him bound and gagged in a box, took the box on a trolley to a car and drove south. When he tried to escape at a highway rest stop, they punched him.
He was locked behind in the basement of the 74-year-old accused, near Chiemsee and was interrogated by the couples and a fifth man. They forced him to sign documents committing to give them money equivalent to what they had lost. dpa jbp pw mt