WARSAW, Poland. A man who abducted two Israelis and one Brazilian in a Warsaw hotel on Monday and threatened to detonate explosives is reported to be a son of the Kuwaiti ambassador to Poland, informs the Associated Press.
Mohammad A. (the police has not disclosed his last name), the son of Khaled Al-Shaibani, Kuwaiti ambassador to Poland, faces up to three years in prison. Local authorities have admitted that it was him who imprisoned three teenagers in a hotel room, warning that he had explosives tied to his chest. As it later turned out, there were no explosives and the only flammable substance Mohammad A. carried was alcohol in his veins. The Kuwaiti embassy confirmed that the suspect was the son of the ambassador, however, refused to comment on the story.
The incident took place on Monday morning in one of the capital’s hotels. A young man, described by the hotel’s receptionist as being visibly inebriated, entered the main hall and immediately headed for the elevator, which took him to the sixth floor. There, he accosted three young people – two 16-year-old Israelis and one 16-year-old Brazilian. According to other guests who overheard the conversation, the man was speaking English with a Middle Eastern accent and shouted that he would detonate a bomb. After a few minutes he forced the three interlocutors to enter their room.
“It was a very heated conversation,” said the spokesperson of the metropolitan police. “At one point he pushed them to one of the rooms. He also threatened that he would detonate himself.”
The police arrived at the scene at once and ordered the evacuation of the hotel’s guests. “In all such situations we must make sure that everything is all right,” said the spokesperson. “Human life is the most important.” The negotiations with Mohammad did not bring results and at around 10 am an anti-terrorist unit smashed the door and released the three captives. None of them were harmed. After close examination no explosives were found at the kidnapper.
The three teenagers came to Poland to take part in the March of the Living, an event that every year commemorates the millions of Jews, Poles, and other nationals who perished in Nazi concentration camps. This time some 10,000 youths from around the world, mostly of Jewish origin, marched several miles to the Auschwitz concentration camp where some 2.5 million people had been gassed.