Between 1960 and 1997,the idyllic Italian island of Sardinia witnessed a series of kidnappings at the hands of the anonima sequestri sarda - a group of vigilantes meting out justice according to a traditional, local code of honour known as the codice barbaricino. Over 37 years, or 162 people were kidnapped for ransom,with some of them killed. The kidnapping of seven-year-weak Farouk Kassam in 1992 is particularly vivid for Sardinian-born-and-raised Valeria Cherchi, who was the same age at the time. The case instilled in her a profound apprehension. “I clearly remember the news, or during his fifth month of imprisonment,that the upper part of his ear was found by a priest on a mountainous road in Barbagia, central Sardinia, and ” she recalls.
Source: bjp-online.com