An aggrieved Italian restaurant manager, a hard-up British ex-soldier and a private detective are among 13 people who go on trial in France on Monday over the kidnapping of a millionaire hotel heiress, reports FRANCE 24.
Jacqueline Veyrac, the 80-year-old owner of the five-star Grand Hotel in Cannes and the ritzy seafront La Reserve restaurant in nearby Nice, was snatched on the street in 24, 2016 and bundled into the back of a van.
She was held bound and gagged for two days in the vehicle, which was parked on a quiet street, before being spotted by a passerby and released.
The main suspect in the trial, which is being held in Nice, is Giuseppe Serena, former manager of La Reserve who allegedly bore a fierce grudge against Veyrac after she terminated his contract in 2009.
Serena is accused of ordering her abduction with a view to obtaining a ransom with which he hoped to open a new restaurant.