Kidnapped Dutch millionaire's daughter freed
A Dutch millionaire’s daughter who was kidnapped by gunmen earlier this week has been freed unharmed, Amsterdam police said today.
Claudia Melchers, a 37-year-old mother of two, had been taken from her home on Monday by men wearing masks.
“Last night Claudia Melchers was released unharmed,” a police statement said.
Her father, Hans Melchers, had a personal fortune estimated at €460m, though it was not clear if a ransom was paid.
The assailants broke into Melchers’ home in the Old South section of Amsterdam, bound and gagged a friend and seized the woman. Her two young children were left unharmed.
The abduction of Melchers’ daughter revived news stories in the Dutch media about his past. Hans Melchers is owner of Melchemie Holland, which had supplied chemicals to Iraq in the 1980s and was once fined for a shipment of banned chemicals, which it called a “one-time mistake”.
Melchers’ ex-wife, Anna Maria Lievens, was found dead at the bottom of the stairs of her home in Malta in 1999, apparently after a fall.
