Men charged in hostage case

(CNS): Police said today that they have now charged two men with abduction, keeping in confinement an abducted person, blackmail, and assault ABH in connection with the kidnapping of an unnamed local man in Grand Cayman on Thursday 18 March.  The RCIPS also confirmed that they have now arrested a third man in connection with the same case. Earlier today (Monday 29 March) police said they arrested a Honduran national aged 39 years at the Immigration office in  Elgin Avenue, George Town. He has been arrested on suspicion of abduction.

The two men who have now been formally charged in relation to the incident are Wespie Mullings-Ramon, aged 36 years, and Charles Feliz Saunders-Webster, aged 28 years, both Honduran nationals, and they were expected to appear in court on Monday afternoon.

Police first revealed the arrest of the two men on Tuesday 23 March when Police Commissioner David Baines held a press conference to announce Cayman’s first ever hostage and ransom crime. Baines said that the parents of the victim had reported to police that they received a phone call on Thursday 18 March from a man claiming to have taken their son hostage. The suspect demanded a ransom of hundreds of thousands of dollars to secure their son’s release and warned he would kill the victim if they contacted the police. However, a few days later the victim managed to escape.

Police arrested Mullings-Ramon at about 1:00 pm on Saturday, 20 March, at Owen Roberts International Airport as he attempted to flee the country. Then around 10:30 on 23 March Saunders-Webster was also arrested at the airport as he too tried to flee the Cayman Islands. Police said they believed the two men are work permit holders. Police said at the time they were unable to release all of the details of the crime as they were still involved in an active investigation.

“There are details about the enquiry which, at the present time, I am not prepared to release. These details include the identity of the victim or his family, the exact figure of the ransom demand, the location of where the hostage was held, and how he escaped from his captors," Baines stated.

CNS will bring more details of the case from the courtroom as and when they are available.