Ecclestone’s mother-in-law Aparecida Schunck was rescued by Sao Paulo police and her kidnappers have been taken into custody, according to BBC News.
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Aparecida Schunck Flosi Palmeira – the 67-year-old mother of Ecclestone’s Brazilian wife Fabiana Flosi – had been missing since she was kidnapped on July 22.
Police in Sao Paulo arrested Bernie Ecclestone’s helicopter pilot yesterday and accused him of masterminding the kidnap of the Formula One boss’s mother-in-law.
The arrested men were named locally as Vitor Oliveira Amorim and Davi Vicente Azevedo.
Police commanders met Monday with Sao Paulo Gov. Geraldo Alckmin and said that Schunck was in good condition and was not harmed by her kidnappers.
Elisabete Sato of Sao Paulo police said the ransom, thought to have been the largest in Brazilian history, had not been paid.
Schunck spoke briefly to television cameras as she arrived at a police station after being freed on Sunday, before hugging waiting relatives.
Three men are said to be in custody after Mrs Schunck was found, unharmed, in a house in the Sao Paulo region, having been abducted from her own home in the city.
More common now is the practice of “express kidnapping” where people are sometimes abducted off the street and driven to a series of ATMs until their accounts are emptied.
“The civil police anti-kidnapping division freed the mother-in-law of Bernie Ecclestone this Sunday evening”.
Media in Brazil reported that the kidnappers had demanded the ransom in pounds, with the cash divided into four bags.
Forbes magazine estimates Ecclestone and his family are worth $3.1 billion.
Olympic host Brazil is struggling to show all will be well with the Games to open in Rio on August 5, despite low ticket sales and general public apathy amid a deep recession.
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But a dedicated task force has drastically reduced the number of kidnappings in the city over the last 15 years.
