Four Pakistanis charged with kidnapping two Tamils in France

Four Pakistanis have been charged with kidnapping and beating up two Tamils after being stopped on the motorway heading south from Paris at the weekend.

Creative Commons/Clicsouris

The four were charged and denied bail on Tuesday night in the Paris suburb of Bobigny.

They and their alleged victims were picked up by police on the A6 motorway just north of Lyon on Friday night.

Although they showed signs of having been assaulted, the two Tamils, 25 and 32-years-old respectively, were jailed in a Lyon police station pending charges, according to a police source who blamed the mix-up on language difficulties.

All six were later transferred to Bobigny and the Tamils freed.

The four Pakistanis have been charged with unlawful detention, assault, use of a weapon and premeditation and an investigation has been launched.

Paris has an established Tamil community and a growing Pakistani one.

Last week Nadarajah Mathinthiran, an activist who supported the separatist Tamil Tiger movement, was shot dead on a street in the capital.