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 freed Australian kidnap victim Warren Rodwell arrived in Manila on Monday afternoon, for rest and a medical check-up, according to officials.

Australian Warren Rodwell said Monday he was overwhelmed, happy and thankful at finally being free after 15 months as a hostage of Islamic militants in the southern Philippines.

The family of the Australian citizen released after 15 months as a captive of the Abu Sayyaf group expressed hopes, on Monday, that their brother’s captors would soon be brought to justice.

The relatives of an Australian man held hostage for 15 months by Islamic militants in remote islands of the southern Philippines called Monday for his captors to be brought to justice.

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?