Greek police arrest three human traffickers, free seven captives

THESSALONIKI, Greece (AP) — Greek police said Sunday they have arrested three men of Pakistani origin for keeping seven people, including an Afghan family of four, whom they had helped cross into Greece, hostage and demanding money to release them.

Police raids in two places outside the northern city of Thessaloniki on Friday freed the captives and led to the arrests of the traffickers, police said.

The Afghan family — the 66-year-old father, the 42-year-old mother and their two children, a boy and a girl, ages 14 and 16 — had crossed over from Turkey about a week ago. The traffickers kept them hostage, separating the parents from the children, and demanding 6,000 euros ($7,000) to release them, police said.

The traffickers had been in contact with an older son of the Afghan couple, who lives in the U.K., for the transfer of money. It was he who tipped off the authorities.

When police raided the place where the children were kept, they also found the three captive Pakistanis, whom they didn’t know about beforehand. The traffickers were demanding a ransom of 2,000 euros ($2,320) from their three compatriots. Police also arrested two of the traffickers, ages 31 and 36. The third trafficker, a 19-year-old, was arrested when the parents were freed, police said.

Russian dissident Navalny recovering faster than expected

BERLIN (AP) — Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny is recovering from the suspected assassination attempt last month faster than expected, one of his aides said Sunday.

Navalny, who collapsed on a plane from Siberia to Moscow on Aug. 20 and spent nearly three weeks in a coma, was discharged last week from the Berlin hospital where he was being treated. His doctors said that based on Navalny’s progress a “complete recovery is possible.”

“He is doing much better, I would say unexpectedly better,” Leonid Volkov, Navalny’s chief of staff, told German broadcaster RTL. “I think the recovery is really faster than expected, and of course this is good news that makes us very happy.”

Navalny, a longtime foe of Russian President Vladimir Putin, is still receiving outpatient treatment and remains under close protection, Volkov said.

“I personally don’t think that another attack can happen in Berlin, but we can see that the personal security has a different opinion,” he said. “He is guarded quite heavily.”