Kidnappers Harassed Him With Alcohol, Chez Cora President Tells Jury

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The men who kidnapped the chairman of Chez Cora four years ago changed their behavior at one point during the ordeal and brought out a selection of alcoholic beverages for him to consume, Nicholas Tsouflidis told a jury on Thursday.

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While being interrogated for a second day, Tsouflidis said he was thirsty while being held against his will in the unfinished basement of a house in March 2017 and instead of being given water, as he had requested, his captors took out several alcoholics. drinks.

Tsouflidis spoke about alcohol on the third day of his testimony at the trial of Paul Zaidan, 52, a Laval resident who is accused of kidnapping Tsouflidis, the head of the company that controls Chez Cora’s restaurant franchises, on March 8, 2017. Zaidan is also accused of holding Tsouflidis against his will for hours and attempting to extort money from his mother, Cora Tsouflidis, the founder of the company, for $ 11 million.

Zaidan owned a Chez Cora franchise on Nuns’ Island for just a few months before it failed.

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The drinks started with a can of Palm Bay, a fruity drink with 5 percent alcohol, Tsouflidis said. Then he ordered a beer, but instead got Jack Daniel’s whiskey and Wild Turkey bourbon.

While answering defense attorney Hovsep Dadaghalian’s questions, Tsouflidis calculated that the drinks flowed for about 90 minutes before he was released.

“He was drunk,” Tsouflidis said when asked how he felt before he was taken out of the house and taken away before he was dumped in a ditch.

“So they brought you cigarettes, they brought you alcohol at your request. Did they also put on some music while you were tied up? “asked Dadaghalian, who for the second day often referred to what happened to Tsouflidis as” the alleged kidnapping. “

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Tsouflidis said she didn’t listen to music, but mimicked the sound of glasses clinking.

“Did they cheer you up?” Asked the lawyer.

“You know what, they were scared shitless. They were scared. They talked and I kept talking, “Tsouflidis said, adding that the men would not answer their questions until the biggest of them finally said,” I think we’ll let you go. He estimates that five men in total were involved in his abduction.

On Wednesday, Tsouflidis said the men’s behavior appeared to change when one realized he had a cell phone. Tsouflidis said that was the time when he informed his kidnappers that he had managed to call 911 shortly after they grabbed him outside his home in Mirabel and put him in the trunk of a vehicle. He said he told the kidnappers that his mother’s demand for a ransom became futile after police learned that he had been kidnapped.

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Shortly after realizing that the police were probably looking for him, the men appeared to give up. Tsouflidis said they took him up a ladder, put him in a vehicle and drove him for a while.

“They stopped the car suddenly. One of the men got out, took me out of the car and left me in the ditch, “said Tsouflidis, adding that he had asked the kidnappers to leave him in Laval because he was familiar with him and did not want them to leave him. ”. in some isolated place where I would freeze to death. “

Dadaghalian’s cross-examination of Tsouflidis will continue on Friday.

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