ATHENS, Oct. 2 (Xinhua) -- Greek police on Monday freed a local businessman on Crete island who had been abducted six months ago near his home, the national news agency AMNA reported.
According to police and hospital sources, Michalis Lempidakis, 53, co-owner of Crete Plastics company, is in good condition.
Seven Greek nationals, including six Cretans, have been arrested, according to police sources, while the investigation is still underway.
This was the first time in Greece that a kidnapping victim has been held for so long.
"Thank you," Lempidakis said to police when they found him tied up in a car lot in the outskirts of Rethymno city, local ANT1 TV quoted Greek Citizen Protection Minister Nikos Toskas as saying.
Lempidakis was abducted on March 30 near his home in the city of Heraklion, about 80 km east of Rethymno. The perpetrators had staged a minor car accident, according to police.
Several days later they requested 100 million euros (117.64 million U.S. dollars) in cash as ransom from his family. As they exchanged messages with the family for months, they reduced the amount to about 15 million euros (17.55 million dollars), according to police sources.
Greek authorities, the victim's family and Greek media had agreed to release minimum information to facilitate the investigation.
According to police, some of the perpetrators had been tracked down early but the police did not detain them until they had located the place where the businessman was held.
Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and several leaders of political opposition parties issued statements congratulating the Greek police on "a major success."
