Colombian authorities arrested and charged three adults and a teenager for the kidnapping and killing of a Hmong-American comedian and activist last month.
The Public Prosecutor’s Office said in a statement that two men and a woman were charged with the crimes of aggravated kidnapping for extortion and aggravated homicide, CBS News reported. A minor involved in the crime was also charged and transferred to a special detention center for minors.
Tou Ger Xiong, 50, was a tourist in Colombia when he was abducted after going out to meet a woman he met on social media. Authorities state that he sustained injuries from a blunt object and over a dozen stab wounds, New York Post reported.
Xiong was held against his will on the night of December 10 in an apartment, where he was tied up, tortured, beaten and stripped of his credit cards, a cellphone, cash and a watch, according to CBS News. Despite Xiong’s family in the U.S. making a payment of $3,140 to a woman’s account, the activist was killed by his captors.
Following the killing, Xiong’s family said in a statement that “the pain of his loss is indescribable.” A vigil was also held in remembrance of Xiong, attend by Senators Amy Klobuchar and Foung Hawj, Mayors Melvin Carter and Ann Burt, and Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan.
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