The three men and two women are considered the likely main perpetrators by the Hesse state LKA Criminal Investigations Bureau, which said the five had made partial confessions. However, there were no links to the Russian mafia, despite speculations to the contrary. One of the female suspects was a long-standing employee of the Fiszmann company, a spokesperson for the LKA said. However, there is no sign of life or any trace of the kidnapping victim himself, according to police, who said no statement at all was possible on Fiszmann's fate. This morning, police had conducted several major raids in the Rhine-Main area, discovering the ransom money in the garden of a Wiesbaden flat.
Police suspect that there is one more perpetrator.
A telephone announcement playing back the man's voice has been established. Fiszmann had been abducted on October 1 and had not been released despite the payment of four million marks of ransom. Herzog on visit to France Bonn. German President Herzog today began a four-day visit to France. He is accompanied by leading members of the civil rights movement in the former East Germany.