Azernews.Az

A Chinese woman kidnapped in Baku on Wednesday has been released, according to the Interior Ministry.
Zhang Venl’s husband, Zhang Yaogin, has told the police that his wide had disappeared together with the Opel Astra car she was driving. On the following day, he received a call from her cellular phone, with the callers demanding a $300,000 ransom for her release. They threatened to kill the woman if her husband reported the incident to the police.
On Thursday, unknown individuals said Zhang Venl’s chopped-off finger has been thrown to the courtyard of the house she lived in. The finger was found there afterwards.
Law enforcers conducted an operation on the same day, detaining five Chinese citizens. Venl was found at the kidnappers’ home with her eyes, hands and mouth tied up. Knives, iron batons, masks and cellular phones believed to have been used to commit the crime were impounded from the outlaws’ home.
This crime is a rare case in Azerbaijan. Essentially, no cases of foreign nationals’ abducting each other for the purpose of reaping a big ransom have been reported in the country’s post-independence history.*