A British rancher in Brazil has accused his wife of kidnapping him before sending him to an illegal rehab after he refused to pay for her family to fly out to visit them over Christmas.
Robert Witchell, 59, was locked
up for a month before he could escape the clinic in Caldas Novas, Goias State.
He told detectives he had been
window shopping shortly before Christmas when he was snatched off the street by
four men, who bundled him into the back of a car.
He was then driven 90 minutes
to the Novo Dia, or New Day, a drugs rehab clinic, and locked up until police
rescued him on 22nd January.
Witchell said he was told his
wife had signed the order for his detention in the 'private prison' because of
his drinking.
In reality, he told police,
they had fallen out when he refused to pay to have her entire family flown in
to spend Christmas with them.
He said: 'I was outside a shop
close to my ranch. I was talking to a friend of mine when four people
approached me and three of them grabbed me by my arms and by the legs.
'They said: "You're coming
to the clinic. You have problems with your drinking, blah blah blah, you have
to come with us."
Wife "kidnaps her husband
and locks him up in "private prison" after he refused to fly her
family out to visit over Christmas
Witchell said he told them:
'I'm not going anywhere with you. It's a kidnap.'
He said they replied: 'We have
had a call. We are authorised to take you by force.'
Witchell was then allegedly
physically lifted and bundled into the back of a car and driven for 90 minutes
to the clinic.
He adds in the interview
released on 24th January: 'They put me there and locked me in a room.'
Witchell says: 'My wife had
signed the authorisation to put me in there, I think, over an argument we had
at Christmas
'She wanted her family to come
and I said I couldn't afford to pay for it. Then all of a sudden I've got these
people kidnapping me.'
Witchell was only rescued when
he managed to email a friend from a computer he was allowed access to, who
called the police.
Police have since shut down the
Novo Dia clinic, and its unnamed manager has been charged with kidnapping and
false imprisonment.
A Military Police of Goias
statement read: 'The Military Police closed this Tuesday (23rd January) a
recovery clinic for drug users at Residencial Eldorado PARK II, in Caldas
Novas, after a request for help from an inmate of English nationality who was being
held in this private prison.'
They added: 'The Englishman was rescued from the clinic after reporting the irregularities via e-mail, claiming that around 30 days ago he had been kidnapped by four men, supposedly employees of the clinic, and that since then he had been kept in prison.'
'In an interview with the
victim, he reported that around 15th December, his wife asked him for a large
amount of money,' the statement went on.
'Faced with his refusal, his
partner, without judicial authorisation, hired a clinic in Caldas Novas, which
kidnapped him, coerced him, and kept him in a private prison.'
There is no information on
Witchell's current condition, and his wife has not been named.
The investigation continues.
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