Liberato Panfilo Colonico, the Italian chef kidnapped last Friday by an armed commando in his restaurant in Ecuador.
The entrepreneur from Sulmona has been released and is in good health: «I'm fine and the police are listening to me. It wasn't a film», he said himself, first getting in touch with the authorities and then with some friends from Sulmona.
Long beard, black tank top and Bermuda shorts, with a tired but smiling face, he appeared healthy, even if visibly upset. The kidnappers left him at a toll booth and he returned by taxi , according to witnesses.
The 49-year-old, known to everyone as "Benny", had been kidnapped in broad daylight in his restaurant, "Il Sabore mio" in Guayaquil, the capital of the province of Guayas. Two men dressed as policemen and armed with machine guns entered the restaurant and took him away at gunpoint . All of this was caught on surveillance cameras.
Police said they had arrested two of the kidnappers. One of them was the businessman's bodyguard , who had decided to resort to security measures after a shooting that took place a few months ago.
We are now trying to reconstruct all the details of the story, it is not clear at the moment whether a ransom has been paid.
(Unioneonline/D)
