Freed Australian readies charges against kidnappers
Freed Australian hostage Warren Rodwell met with a Philippine prosecutor on Monday to help prepare charges against the Islamic extremists who held him in captivity for 15 months.
Freed Australian hostage Warren Rodwell met with a Philippine prosecutor on Monday to help prepare charges against the Islamic extremists who held him in captivity for 15 months.
The ransom had changed hands and a day had passed, but Australian Warren Rodwell remained in the Abu Sayyaf’s hands. Basilan Vice Gov. Al Rasheed Sakalahul felt he had been duped and he wanted to unleash hell on the kidnappers.
Several Filipinos in Sabah have been helping militants in Sulu by regularly sending them money, a ranking Malaysian police official, who was quoted in a radio report, said Tuesday.
Despite their demonstrated ability to continue kidnapping people, including foreigners, Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin said Tuesday that the bandit group was now a “marginalized” organization.
The family of a freed Australian hostage expressed hope on Monday that his kidnappers, including Abu Sayyaf bandits and rogue elements of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) who kept him in jungle captivity for 15 months, would be captured and punished so such ordeals would not be repeated.
The freed Australian kidnap victim Warren Rodwell arrived in Manila on Monday afternoon, for rest and a medical check-up, according to officials.
The Filipino wife of freed Australian kidnap victim Richard Warren Rodwell said the Abu Sayyaf only got P4 million and not P7 million as an unnamed official had earlier told the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
The Philippine National Police (PNP) and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) distanced themselves, on Sunday, from the reported negotiations and payment of a P4-million ransom for the freedom of Australian Warren Richard Rodwell, who was released by his Abu Sayyaf captors on Saturday.
The Abu Sayyaf bandit counted the money in front of Basilan Vice Gov. Al Rasheed Sakalahul. It was P4 million. And early on Saturday morning, Australian Warren Richard Rodwell walked to freedom after 15 months in the hands of the al-Qaida-linked band of kidnappers.
How much did the freedom of Australian national Richard Warren Rodwell cost?
The Australian government welcomed Saturday’s release of Australian national Warren Rodwell from more than a year of captivity by the terrorist group Abu Sayyaf, lauding the Philippine government for “remarkable” efforts to get the Perth native back to safety.
Chinese Malaysian Pang Choon Pong returned home to Kota Kinabalu on Thursday and was reunited with his family, five days following his release by Abu Sayyaf gunmen who held him for nearly two years in Jolo, Sulu, a Sabah-based radio station reported.
