University student Roumen Gouninski, who was kidnapped on October 19 2009, was released, apparently in good physical condition, late on November 29, the Interior Ministry said.

He was released by his kidnappers near the town of Elin Pelin just outside Sofia.

The kidnappers told Gouninski to lie down on the ground and wait for someone to find him. A guard in a nearby plant took Gouninski in before they contacted his relatives.

Gouninski was in good physical condition but in a bad psychological state given the time he had spent with kidnappers, Interior Ministry chief commissioner Klain Georgiev told private bTV on November 30 2009.

Both Georgiev and Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov refused to comment on whether Gouninski's father had paid a ransom to release his son amid speculation that 500 000 leva had been given to the kidnappers.

According to Tsvetanov, investigations were still underway and giving such information would only undermine police efforts to find the kidnappers. However, he said, the circumstances surrounding Gouninski's release bore similarities to various unsolved kidnappings over the past two years. This could suggest that the kidnappers were the same people, he said.

Eight months before Gouninski's kidnapping, Bulgaria was shocked by the abduction of two businessmen.

The first took place in April 2009 when businessman Kiro Kirov (70) was held hostage for 17 days in April and released after his son paid a ransom of hundreds of thousands of euro.

Retired businessman Vene Sotirov (64) is still missing after he was kidnapped on April 16 while entering his home in a residential building in Souhata Reka borough. Both kidnappings remain unresolved.

Gouninski was abducted on October 19 2009 while walking his dog in Sofia's Studentski Grad borough and had been missing ever since. The abduction took place in front of a number of witnesses.

He is the son of businessman Roumen Gouninski, who is a Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) municipal councillor in the town of Pravets.

Gouninski Snr. was BSP's candidate for mayor of Pravets in the upcoming by-election, but withdrew his candidacy after the incident.

Besides being a municipal councillor, Gouninski Snr was also involved in tourism, real estate and fuel trade. He has several petrol stations around Pravets and Blagoevgrad, working a franchise of Lukoil refinery run by Valentin Zlatev.

After the kidnapping media speculated that Gouninski's father received a text message from kidnappers with demands for one million leva in ransom and a deadline for its delivery. Both Gouninski and police have denied this.

After the kidnapping, the first such high profile crime faced by new Prime Minister Borissov since assuming office, Bulgarian police have been comparing the experiences of other countries in tackling such crimes.

On October 26, Borissov reneged on his previous plan for there to be a special law against kidnappings that would involve harsher punishments. He said that there would not be such a law. Instead, he said, the Penal Code would be revised to stipulate 30 years' imprisonment.

On November 19 2009, however, the Cabinet adopted legislative amendments by which crimes such as kidnapping, when perpetrated with extreme cruelty resulting in the victim sustaining severe injuries, would be punished by 15 to 30 years in jail, life imprisonment or life imprisonment without parole. These sanctions would also apply when kidnappers demanded a ransom or any other action in return for the victim's release.