A resident of Vitsyebsk organized the kidnapping of a man from Minsk, held him hostage for 12 days while demanding repayment of a non-existent debt, and attacked the victim again several months later. Investigators have solved the 2019 case.
According to the investigation, in March 2019, five defendants lured an individual entrepreneur into a car in a parking lot in Minsk, stunned him with a Taser, tied him up and took him to a private house in the Vitsyebsk district. There, he was held in a basement for 12 days while the kidnappers demanded $250,000. The man was beaten with padded sports gloves and a metal baton, threatened with a switched-on iron and a shotgun, had exposed wires brought to his feet while they were submerged in water, and was subjected to a simulated electrocution.
Fearing for the lives of his family members, the victim asked his wife to hand over all of their savings and borrowed large sums of money from friends. The attackers also stole property from the man’s garage in Minsk and withdrew money from his bank card. His relatives collected and handed over $40,000 to the extortionists.
Over the following months, the victim sold his apartment, garage and car and gave the defendants another $80,000. Unable to raise the remaining ransom, he changed his place of residence and attempted to hide from the extortionists.
Nine months later, in December 2019, the defendants attacked the man again, took him to a basement and demanded $20,000. After receiving the money, they also took his Audi A6 and wristwatch.
The defendants threatened to kill the victim’s family if he reported the crimes to the police. In January 2020, after learning that the organizer was serving a prison sentence in another country, the man contacted law enforcement authorities.
All members of the group were detained. Investigators also established the organizer’s involvement in other crimes:
– 1998 – An armed attack on a family in Vitsyebsk involving violence, threats with a firearm and the theft of property worth more than 254,000 pre-denomination Belarusian rubles.
– 2000 – An attack on an office, during which a security guard and employees were beaten and property worth more than 11,000 rubles was stolen.
– 2025 – An attack aimed at coercing the free transfer of ownership rights to a land plot in the Vitsyebsk region.
A total of seven defendants have been charged in the case. They remain in custody. The case has been referred to court.
