Ex-Belgian Premier Says He Never Saw Kidnapers

BRUSSELS —  Former Belgian Prime Minister Paul Vanden Boeynants said Wednesday he spent his month as a kidnap victim hooded and handcuffed and never saw his captors’ faces or heard their voices.

Vanden Boeynants described the kidnapers who abducted him Jan. 14 as “professional criminals” interested only in money. He said they were well organized and operated with military discipline.

“My impression is that I was in France,” Vanden Boeynants said two days after he was freed by his kidnapers, who were paid a ransom of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The wealthy businessman said his captors, possibly as many as five, first sought a $10-million ransom but reduced the demand after reading a newspaper article indicating he was not as rich as they thought.

At a news conference, Vanden Boeynants said he spent almost all his time in captivity handcuffed and hooded. The first two weeks were spent under threat of a gun, he said.

The kidnapers, calling themselves the Socialist Revolutionary Brigade, used the guise of a left-wing terrorist group to mislead investigators and had no political motives, said Vanden Boeynants.

“We don’t give a damn about politics. We want money,” he quoted them as telling him in a note.

All communication with his kidnapers was done through such notes, said Vanden Boeynants, 69. He said he remained calm throughout the ordeal by repeatedly telling himself, “You’re not going to die here.”