Last update - 00:00 31/10/2007
Gag order lifted on kidnap of Israeli family in Russia months ago
By Jonathan Lis, Haaretz Correspondent
A gag order was lifted Wednesday on the details of the apparent abduction of an Israeli woman and her three daughters by a criminal gang in Russia two months ago.
The four were released on October 11, hours after the involvement of the Israel Police.
According to the subsequent investigation, the 29-year-old woman and her daughters were visiting Russia to explore the possibility of opening a business, when they were snatched by a gang whose members included the husband of the abducted woman's half-sister.
The gang demanded the woman's money, and told her to transfer to them the title deeds of her father's Moscow apartment.
Tel Aviv police learned of the incident on October 11, when the woman's mother told them her daughter had called from Russia saying she had been abducted and was hurt.
The information was immediately communicated to the Israel Police representative in Russia. The woman and her daughters were released eight hours later.
The representative, Andrei Kotozov, contacted Moscow police's organized crime unit, and worked with them to pinpoint three addresses where the woman may have been held. Police units were dispatched to all three and the woman was found in one of them, located in a city 200 kilometers from Moscow, with a broken hand.
Upon hearing police approach, the kidnappers hid the woman's daughters, aged eight, five and four, under the bed.
A joint Israeli and Russian police investigation found that the woman, while seeking business opportunities, spread rumors that she possessed large amounts of money. The criminal gang took advantage of the fact that the woman's visa had expired, and convinced her to transfer all her money to them so they could assist her in seeking an extension.
The gang then kidnapped the woman and demanded she also transfer ownership of her father's Moscow apartment to their names. The woman was unable to do so as all of the necessary documents were in Israel.