Indanan
(Philippines) (AFP) - A Norwegian and three Indonesian seamen held hostage in
the southern Philippines were turned over to a government envoy on Sunday after
being freed by Islamic extremists who had beheaded two captives in June.
Kjartan
Sekkingstad and the Indonesians, who had been held by Abu Sayyaf militants,
were handed over to envoy Jesus Dureza in the town of Indanan on Jolo island,
said an
AFP reporter at the scene.
The transfer
took place at the heavily guarded camp of another Muslim rebel leader Nur
Misuari, whose group assisted in the release according to the government.
Sekkingstad
was abducted from a high-end tourist resort which he managed on Samal island in
September 2015, along with two Canadians who were later beheaded.
It was still
unclear if the three freed Indonesians were the same ones kidnapped by armed
men off a fishing trawler in Malaysian waters in July.
The Abu Sayyaf
freed Sekkingstad on Saturday, handing him over to Misuari who is engaged in
peace talks with the government and at whose camp he spent the night, Dureza
said earlier.
Escorted by a
small contingent of Jolo police, Dureza, Misuari, the freed captives and local
officials met in a building surrounded by hundreds of Misuari's fighters from
the Moro National Liberation Front before leaving for a military camp, the
reporter said.
The military
has said that after a medical check-up and debriefing, Sekkingstad would fly to
the southern city of Davao to be received by President Rodrigo Duterte.
John Ridsdel
and Robert Hall, the two Canadians seized with Sekkingstad, were beheaded after
a ransom demand of about 300 million pesos ($6.5 million) was not met.
Duterte's
spokesman Martin Andanar said in Manila that "the government maintains the
no-ransom policy".
"Now, if
there is a third party like his family that paid, we do not known anything
about that," he told reporters.
Norwegian
foreign affairs communications chief Frode Andersen told AFP by phone that
"the Norwegian government does not pay ransom in this case or any other
case".
However a
spokesman for the Abu Sayyaf was quoted in a local newspaper on Sunday as
saying the group received 30 million pesos (about $625,000) for the Norwegian.
The Abu Sayyaf
is a loose network of militants formed in the 1990s with seed money from Osama
bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network.
It is based in
remote Muslim-populated southern islands in the mainly Catholic Philippines,
and has earned millions of dollars in ransom from kidnappings -- often
targeting foreigners.
While its
leaders have in recent years pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group,
analysts say the Abu Sayyaf is mainly focused on a lucrative kidnapping
business rather than religious ideology.
The group,
which is blamed for the worst terror attacks in Philippine history and is
listed by the United States as a terrorist organisation, has been the target of
a military operation since August.
AFP
Follow Solenzo Blog on
0 Comments