Saturday, March 12, 2005

Brazil — The mother of Brazilian soccer player Luis Fabiano has been kidnapped. According to the television channel TV ESPN Brasil, the kidnapping occurred Friday, March 11, by morning in Ponte Preta district, Campinas, 83.5 km (52 mi) of São Paulo.

The police are not giving too many details, and a great part of local media is not reporting the case, afraid of putting the life of Fabiano’s mother at risk.

This is the third kidnapping of a soccer player’s mother in four months. On February 23, Ilma de Castro Libânio, 51, the mother of the Brazilian soccer player Edinaldo Batista Libânio, 25, known as Grafite was kidnapped.

On November 6, 2004, the mother of Robson dos Santos, or Robinho, was kidnapped.

In both cases, the hostages were released and they are well, and the police arrested the suspects.