Four men have been arrested after a Moroccan man was kidnapped, forced to transfer $170,000 in cryptocurrency, and then strangled to death in Kyiv, the capital's police force said on July 29.
In a post on Facebook, police said the 29-year-old victim was abducted from outside his home in the Solomianskyi district of Kyiv around midnight on an unspecified date. People in a nearby house heard screams and saw the man being beaten and bundled into a car.
He was then taken to an abandoned building where he was forced to transfer over the cryptocurrency – which police identified as Bitcoin – to digital wallets belonging to the attackers, who then strangled him and buried his body in a forest.
A police source told the Kyiv Independent the victim was from Morocco.
CCTV footage released by the police appears to show the moment the man was kidnapped.
A police operation subsequently led to the arrests of four men aged 24 to 29. Police allege that in an effort to hide evidence of the crime, the number plates of the car used in the attack were changed afterwards.
All four have been charged with four crimes including murder, robbery and concealment of a crime.
They face up to life imprisonment if found guilty.
Olena Zashko
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