Sulu police hope to find body of Malaysian kidnap victim

Photo by The Star-Asia News Network

PETALING JAYA, Malaysia—Philippine police will be looking for the body of a Malaysian kidnapped victim who could have died of illness while being held hostage by Abu Sayyaf-linked gunmen in Jolo.

Chong Wei Jie, 26, who escaped on Tuesday after nine months in captivity, told the Sulu police provincial office Wednesday that his cousin Chong Wei Fei, 33, could have died in the jungle.

“We are now hoping to locate his body,’’ said a Sulu provincial police official.

He told The Star Online that they were waiting for approval from Manila to enter the area where Wei Fei could have died.

The official said military operations would also be launched soon to hunt down the gunmen who abducted the two cousins from an oil palm plantation near Kg Manakayan off Lahad Datu in the east coast of Sabah on November 13.

The two were later taken by boat to jungle hideouts on Jolo island, which is a stronghold of the Abu Sayyaf extremist group blamed for numerous kidnap for ransom cases in the southern Philippines.

Wei Jei, the plantation assistant manager who is believed to have escaped from the gunmen while they were performing their prayers, was found by a policeman walking on a road along the jungle fringes in the village of Pasil at about 7 a.m. on Tuesday.

He had reportedly informed the Philippines police that he had escaped on Saturday and that his cousin had died in captivity in April.

But he did not specify the illness that killed his cousin or when or where he died.

According to the Philippines police, Wei Jei was flown out of Zamboanga City to Manila Wednesday morning where he was undergoing medical treatment and a debriefing.

“He will be sent back to Malaysia soon. But he looks as if he needs some rest and medical treatment. He will fly home when he is strong enough,” said a police officer adding that Wei Jei had spent a lot of time on a wheel chair.

Last Friday, The Star had published the photographs of the cousins at gunpoint believed to have been taken in Jolo on March 7.

The abductors had made several ransom demands through negotiators but contact was lost with them in February during the Sulu armed group’s intrusion to Kg Tanduo in Felda Sabahat and the launching of Ops Daulat to flush the group out of Sabah.