Ransom Paid; Former Belgian Leader Freed

Former Prime Minister Paul Vanden Boeynants, who was kidnaped a month ago, was freed after his family paid a high ransom, officials said Tuesday.

Vanden Boeynants, 69, was set free by his abductors Monday night in Tournai, 46 miles southwest of Brussels near the French border. He took a taxi home and called police.

A spokesman for the prosecutor’s office said “a ransom of tens of millions of francs” (hundreds of thousands of dollars) was paid for Vanden Boeynants’ release. Chief investigator Andre Vandoren said the politician’s family had paid the ransom 24 hours earlier. He gave no details of how the money was handed over to the kidnapers.

Brussels daily Le Soir said that the family had paid 70 million francs, or $1.79 million.

Investigators suspect Vanden Boeynants was held in northern France. The spokesman said he was handcuffed on a bed and guarded by a couple of men wearing hoods.

Vanden Boeynants told investigators he was blindfolded Monday night and driven in a car for several hours before being released near the railway station of Tournai. Police said he was not mistreated.

Vanden Boeynants, who was prime minister from 1966 to 1968 and again in 1978-79, was attacked by three men on the night of Jan. 14 as he parked his car in the garage of his suburban apartment. The abductors pulled a hood over his head and took him away in a car, the prosecutor’s spokesman said.