VIENNA, Austria - Elite police commandos were providing round-the-clock
protection for Austria's most famous couple - crystal heiress Fiona
Swarovski and her husband, Finance Minister Karl-Heinz Grasser - after
authorities thwarted a kidnap-for-ransom plot, officials said Thursday.
Swarovski, 41, was in a secure location somewhere in the alpine province
of Tyrol, said Gerald Hesztera, a spokesman for the Federal Criminal
Investigations Bureau.
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Austrian Finance Minister Karl-Heinz
Grasser and his wife Fiona Swarovski, from right, arrive for the
traditional Opera Ball, on Thursday, Feb. 23, 2006, at Vienna's State
Opera. Authorities said on Thursday, Oct. 26, 2006, they tightened
security around Austrian crystal heiress Fiona Swarovski after police
thwarted an alleged plot by a Romanian gang to kidnap her for ransom.
[AP]
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Police also were guarding Grasser, 37,
although it remained unclear whether he also had been a target.
Officials said they tightened security around the couple after a Romanian
prisoner serving time in a jail in Innsbruck tipped them to a plot allegedly
hatched by a criminal gang from Eastern Europe to kidnap Swarovski and demand an
undisclosed amount of cash.
Hesztera said the inmate, whose name was not released, provided "concrete
information" about the plot, prompting police to take immediate action
Wednesday. He said investigators were working to track down the would-be
kidnappers, but refused to elaborate.
The mass-circulation Kronen Zeitung daily, citing unidentified police
sources, reported Thursday that the prisoner had offered the information in
hopes of getting his sentence reduced.
It said the plot to enter one of Swarovski's homes and abduct her had been
well under way, and that the kidnappers had taken photographs of the couple's
homes in Vienna and Tyrol, including shots of the alarm systems.
State television said members of Austria's elite Cobra paramilitary police
were guarding a home owned by Swarovski in the ski resort town of Kitzbuehel.
Grasser declined to comment on the investigation as he emerged Thursday from
a government meeting, telling reporters only: "The situation is difficult enough
as it is."
His spokesman, Manfred Lepuschitz, played down the plot, praising the police
for their quick action and saying the response showed the difficulty of pulling
off a high-profile kidnapping in Austria.
Swarovski is heir to her family's business, Swarovski Crystal. Headquartered
in Innsbruck, it is known worldwide for its elegant handcrafted crystal
sculptures, jewelry and fashion accessories.
Once romantically linked to Flavio Briatore, Renault's Formula One team
leader, Swarovski has three children from a previous relationship. She married
Grasser in October 2005 in a vineyard overlooking the Danube River just west of
Vienna in what was the nation's celebrity wedding of the year.
Paparazzi photographers have relentlessly pursued the couple. In June, a
court awarded the couple $50,000 after upholding their invasion of privacy
complaint against Germany's Bild newspaper for publishing photos of the pair
sunbathing on the island of Capri.
