Two grandchildren of former President Anwar Sadat were returned to their family Friday after their father paid a LE2 million ransom.
Police reported that the children's personal driver conducted the swap in the village of Garza in southern Giza, according to the Middle East News Agency.
The Giza Security Directorate had received a complaint from Mohamed Ismail Othman, the husband of one of Sadat's daughters, that unidentified kidnappers had abducted his two children Wednesday as they were being driven to school.
The perpetrators left a message with the driver demanding a LE6 million ransom for the children, aged 8 and 13. That number was later negotiated down to LE2 million, police told MENA.
During interrogations, the children's driver told police that after he and the two children left their villa on the way to school, they were surprised by a car with three masked men carrying automatic weapons and demanding they stop. The driver unsuccessfully tried to outrun the kidnappers. The assailants then forced the driver out of the car, and two of them entered the children's car and drove away, according to the driver.
Othman was forced to pay the ransom after police failed to apprehend the kidnappers.
Last week, a series of robberies took place across the country.
