Chair Of Swiss COVID-19 Vaccination Panel Kidnapped: Perpetrators Ask For Big Ransom, Police Shot Dead

Police line illustration. (Wikimedia Commons/Tony Webster)

JAKARTA - A kidnap victim managed to get free after being kidnapped for an hour, although the perpetrator had asked for a large ransom, although he was later shot dead by security officers.

The head of Switzerland's COVID-19 vaccination advisory commission Christoph Berger said he had been the victim of a brief abduction last month, leading to a shootout with police.

Several Swiss media outlets published a statement from Christoph Berger, saying an unknown kidnapper had held him captive for about an hour on March 31.

The perpetrator also asked for large sums of money under threat of violence, before releasing him. Interestingly, the perpetrator 'did not recognize' the figure of Berger. In fact, this man who is a doctor often appears in the media during the corona virus pandemic.

"The perpetrator did not mention my role as president of the vaccination commission," the newspaper Neue Zuercher Zeitung quoted Berger as saying.

Police investigating the case shot dead a 38-year-old German suspect while trying to arrest him last week. They said the suspect had shot a female friend as police approached, killing her.

Meanwhile, Berger himself was not immediately available for comment. In his statement, he said he would not comment further on the matter.