Malaysian police said on Monday they were searching for at least four suspects who allegedly kidnapped, assaulted, then later released a South African diplomat.
Deputy High Commissioner Nicky Scholtz (54) said he was forced into a car by unidentified men on May 23 while walking to a hotel where he was staying in Kuala Lumpur, said police officials.
At least four men allegedly took him to an apartment, where they held him captive for nearly a week, tried to extort money from him and struck him on the face several times, the officials said.
Scholtz claimed his abductors freed him before dawn on Sunday, handed him 50 ringgit ($13) in cash and abandoned him near a construction site on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur, where he took a taxi to the South African High Commission, The Star newspaper reported.
South African High Commissioner Abraham Sokhaya Nkomo declined to comment on specifics or reveal Scholtz’s current whereabouts, saying officials ”don’t want people to know where he is”.
District Police Chief Hadi Ho Abdullah said police were still investigating the matter.
Scholtz, whose full name is Cornelius Ven Niekerk Scholtz, has previously served as an envoy to Taiwan, Indonesia and Hungary.
Malaysia was a new posting for Scholtz, who arrived April 20.
The New Straits Times newspaper said Scholtz claimed his captors used his credit card to withdraw about 5 000 ringgit ($1 300), and that they held him somewhere in Putrajaya, Malaysia’s administrative capital just south of Kuala Lumpur. – Sapa-AP