Child abduction suspected to be work of organised crime

BELGRADE - Serbia's Interior Minister Nebojsa Stefanovic said on Wednesday the police suspected that the recent abduction of a two-year girl in Belgrade had been the work of organised crime and that the child would have been sold.

The investigation is developing and there are a number of theories that have not been excluded yet, he said and thanked the French police for their cooperation.

The Serbian police is trying to strengthen its preventive measures, he noted, adding that Serbia was not a high-risk country when it came to kidnappings.

The girl was abducted on March 13 in Belgrade in broad daylight, but she was retrieved after a two-hour police chase and the kidnappers were arrested.

The Office of the Prosecutor for Organised Crime asked the court on March 15 to set a detention period for all three of the French citizens suspected of the kidnapping.

Stefanovic rewarded on Wednesday the three police officers who captured the kidnappers and congratulated them on a successful operation.

Photo Tanjug, O. Toskic (archive)