Brazilian billionaire mother-in-law freed by abductors

The mother-in-law of F1 boss, Bernie Ecclestone, who was kidnapped in Brazil, has been freed unharmed without any ransom being paid, police said.

Aparecida Schunck, 67, the mother of Mr. Ecclestone’s wife, Fabiana Flosi, was abducted from her Sao Paulo home on July 22, the BBC reports.

A ransom of $36.5m (£28m) was demanded, but none was paid, according to Elisabete Sato of the Sao Paulo police.

Ms Sato told the BBC there was a major police operation to free the victim.

Two suspects were arrested and the victim was not injured.

Ms Schunck was freed after being traced to a house near Sao Paulo after investigators monitored phone calls between the kidnappers and her family, police said.

Shortly after she was freed, Ms Schunck told Brazilian media: “I only ask for these bandits to be jailed so they can’t abduct anyone else in Sao Paulo.”

The house where Ms Schunck was held for nine days is located in a poor neighbourhood of the town of Cotia and is divided into five flats.

The owner of the house, who lived in one of the flats at the back of the building, said his wife had not stopped crying since she had found out that Ms Schunck had been held “right under our noses.”