Word: ransoms
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...live in cities, and returning them to their hometowns. In reality, say human-rights experts and those who have experienced the system firsthand, it's a terrifyingly arbitrary and routinely abused tool of state power that, at its worst, amounts to little more than a police-enforced kidnapping-and-ransom scheme...
...filthy," she recalls. "There was no drinking water, just a faucet for 100 people, and food was even more scarce and of lower quality than in my labor camp." Beatings by center staff and inmate trusties were a regular occurrence and, says Tong, "inmates were frequently held for ransom until their families could scrape together the money to buy them out." Indeed, just one day after the verdict in Sun's case, Guo Xianli, an accountant from a C.-and-R. center in Hunan province, revealed that his colleagues had teamed up with police in the provincial city of Lianyuan...
...that year they hijacked a Rome bus to hold a "rave" on board; 18 were arrested though most were later released. And they claimed responsibility for the 1999 theft of four religious statues from churches in southern Italy, demanding that the hierarchy give $53,000 to the poor. The ransom was never paid, the statues never returned. Given that taste for direct action, it's a wonder the Blissett Project's four founders - Roberto Bui, Giovanni Cattabriga, Federico Guglielmi and Luca di Meo - had the patience to pen a doorstopper like Q. The novel is a sweeping saga...
...that members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) colluded with Abu Sayyaf. When troops brought them food, she writes, "We were told it was because [Abu Sayyaf leader Abu] Sabaya was wheeling and dealing with the AFP general of that area over how to split up any ransom that might be paid." Elsewhere, she recalls wanting to ask President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo "about how her military was on the take." The AFP has denied numerous past allegations of collusion, and a spokesman called this one "unbelievable." "Preposterous," said Congressman Rodolfo Albano, though Arroyo pledged to again investigate...
...kidnapping and murder of an 11-year-old boy, should go ahead despite the fact that police had threatened Gäfgen with torture to force him to reveal the boy's whereabouts. Gäfgen was arrested last year after police saw him collect a 31 million ransom paid by the boy's father. Police said they needed to make the threat in case the victim was still alive, but in danger. Gäfgen then gave police the boy's location, but he was already dead. Judges ruled that Gäfgen's rights had been violated...