A Norwegian held hostage by a notorious kidnapping-for-ransom gang in the strife-torn southern Philippines was released Saturday after a year in captivity and will soon be handed over to authorities, officials said.
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Abu Sayyaf bandits released yesterday their last Samal island captive, Norwegian national Kjartan Sekkingstad, reportedly after payment of ransom in Sulu.
Earlier, Ramie said they readied Sekkingstad for release since Friday night.
Major Filemon Tan, spokesman of the military’s Western Mindanao Command, said the release of Sekkingstad was the result of “intense” military operations against the Abu Sayyaf.
Resort manager Sekkingstad was among a group seized by Abu Sayyaf from aboard yachts at an exclusive tourist resort on Samal island, about 500 kilometres (300 miles) to the west of Sulu.
The group released Sekkingstad in the town of Patikul in the Sulu Archipelago and he is now in the custody of Nur Misuari, founder of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), in the regional capital Jolo, said Jesus Dureza, a peace adviser to the Philippines’ president.
Dureza said in a statement the bearded Sekkingstad, released at around 2 p.m.in far-flung Patikul town, a known lair of the bandit group in Sulu, was the last of four hostages taken from a luxury resort on Samal Island on September 21, 2015.
The Philippine National Police (PNP) has not officially confirmed the Norwegian’s release.
President Duterte last month announced – rather inadvertently – that P50 million had been paid for the release of Sekkingstad. The Canadians, John Ridsdel and Robert Hall, were decapitated earlier this year after huge ransoms demanded by the terrorist group weren’t paid by the set deadline.
Ramie said they were just waiting for the delivery of the 30 million Philippine peso ($672,228) ransom in exchange for Sekkingstad’s freedom.
The Abu Sayyaf released the third captive, Filipina Marites Flor, in June.
“It’s so painful because I saw them moments before they got beheaded”, Flor told reporters in June in Davao, where she was flown to meet then President-elect Duterte.
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Abu Sayyaf, which has pledged allegiance to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant group (ISIL, also known as ISIS), has entrenched its network in recent years with vast sums of ransom money.
