BELGRADE, Yugoslavia — Former Yugoslav tennis star Slobodan Zivojinovic got his kidnapped 8-year-old son back after paying a $1.1 million ransom, a Belgrade daily reported Friday.
The boy, Stefan, was reportedly abducted near the family's Belgrade home last week. Glas Javnosti daily reported Friday that the ransom payment was made on a highway on Tuesday, with Zivojinovic's wife, a popular folk singer, showing up alone to deliver the cash in exchange for her son.
The boy was shaken but unhurt, the newspaper said. It did not identify its sources.
Family members reportedly followed kidnappers' instructions not to go public or seek police assistance, and there was never any official confirmation of the kidnapping or the release.
Zivojinovic was Yugoslavia's top tennis star in the 1980s and early 1990s. After withdrawing from sports, he went into business together with his wife, and the couple has been considered among the wealthiest in the country.
Although crime is rampant in this impoverished Balkan country, kidnappings involving popular figures and high sums of money are almost unheard of.