A four-nation kidnapping ring freed Brazilian billionaire Abilio Diniz after six days of captivity and surrendered, accepting authorities' assurances of legal protection.
One by one, the abductors - one woman and four men - gave up Sunday and left the two-story safehouse in the city of Sao Paulo that police had surrounded during a tense overnight siege.Diniz, 52, appeared haggard but happy in a yellow-brown polo shirt as he followed his abductors from the building. A supermarket magnate and chairman of the Brazilian multinational conglomerate Pao de Acucar, Diniz's fortune is estimated at $2 billion.
The surrender came after police granted a demand and summoned Roman Catholic Cardinal Paulo Evaristo Arns, Sao Paolo's archbishop, to the scene and joined the negotiations.