Court orders man suspected of blackmailing missing girl’s parents to remain in custody

A court in the western city of Plzeň has ordered a 24-year-old man suspected of blackmailing the family of a missing nine-year-old girl to be kept in custody. Police say the man demanded 250,000 crowns for the return of the missing girl and demanded no police involvement. The man faces fraud charges and a jail sentence of up to two years. The nine-year-old girl, Anna, disappeared from a Prague suburb in mid-October and has not been found in spite of intensive police searches. The family offered a reward of 3.5 million crowns for information leading to her return or her takers.

Author: Chris Johnstone