{"id":29209,"date":"2014-10-18T14:54:02","date_gmt":"2014-10-18T06:54:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=29209"},"modified":"2014-10-18T14:54:02","modified_gmt":"2014-10-18T06:54:02","slug":"philippine-militants-release-2-kidnapped-germans-held-for-6-months","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2014\/10\/18\/philippine-militants-release-2-kidnapped-germans-held-for-6-months\/","title":{"rendered":"Philippine militants release 2 kidnapped Germans held for 6 months"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Screengrab<\/a>
Screengrab from video released by the Abu Sayyaf group released on September 24, 2014<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA,\u00a0Philippines\u2014Two Germans kidnapped and held for six months in the southern\u00a0Philippines\u00a0were released Friday by a militant group just hours after it had threatened to behead one of them if no ransom payment was made, the\u00a0Philippine\u00a0defence chief said.<\/p>\n

The Abu Sayyaf group released Stefan Okonek and Henrike Dielen on southern Jolo Island, Defence Secretary Voltaire Gazmin said.<\/p>\n

Abu Sayyaf spokesman Abu Rami told radio station DXRZ in southern Zamboanga City that his group received 250 million pesos ($5.6 million) in ransom. He did not say who paid it.<\/p>\n

Gazmin said he was \u201cnot privy\u201d to information about any ransom payment.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re happy they\u2019re safe. I hope there will be no more\u201d kidnappings, Gazmin said by telephone.<\/p>\n

Abu Sayyaf gunmen seized Okonek and Dielen last April from a yacht between Malaysia\u2019s Sabah state on Borneo Island and the western\u00a0Philippine\u00a0province of Palawan. They were taken by boat to Sulu province, about 950 kilometres (590 miles) south of Manila, where militants are holding other hostages.<\/p>\n

Abu Rami had threatened to behead Okonek on Friday if there was no ransom payment. The group also demanded the withdrawal of German support for U.S.-led air strikes against the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq.<\/p>\n

In a call to the Zamboanga radio station, Rami said Okonek and Dielen were released to a negotiator in Patikul township on Jolo Island, an Abu Sayyaf stronghold.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe 250 million pesos arrived, no more, no less,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

In an interview with DXRZ allowed by the militants earlier this week, Okonek, 71, who identified himself as a medical doctor, pleaded, \u201cplease do everything to get us out of here.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said he was speaking from inside a 5 metre-by-3 metre (15 foot-by-10 foot) \u201cgrave\u201d the gunmen had dug for him in the jungle. He said he and Dielen had been separated by the militants about a day earlier.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey pushed me inside this hole and I\u2019m sitting with 10 men around me all day, 24 hours a day. I don\u2019t get enough to eat. I have lost already 20 pounds and I am very weak,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Military chief of staff Gen. Gregorio Catapang said the freed Germans were taken to a hospital in a military camp and would be flown to Manila on Saturday.<\/p>\n

He said the military and police would conduct an \u201call-out offensive\u201d against the Abu Sayyaf and \u201clook for the other kidnap victims.\u201d<\/p>\n

Catapang said the Abu Sayyaf is still holding more than a dozen other hostages, including Filipinos and two European birdwatchers who were kidnapped two years ago.<\/p>\n

The militants have been using the birdwatchers as \u201chuman shields\u201d from government offensives, according to regional military commander Lt. Gen. Rustico Guerrero.<\/p>\n

The kidnappings dramatize the threats still posed by the Abu Sayyaf despite more than a decade of U.S.-backed\u00a0Philippine\u00a0military offensives that has crippled the group. Their ransom kidnappings have alarmed nearby countries like Malaysia.<\/p>\n

In 2000, Abu Sayyaf gunmen snatched 21 European tourists, including three Germans, and Malaysian and\u00a0Filipino\u00a0workers from Malaysia\u2019s Sipadan diving resort and brought them to Sulu, where they eventually were freed in exchange for large ransom payments.<\/p>\n

Associated Press writer Jim Gomez contributed to this story.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA,\u00a0Philippines\u2014Two Germans kidnapped and held for six months in the southern\u00a0Philippines\u00a0were released Friday by a militant group just hours after …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":29211,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news-ph","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29209","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29209"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29209\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}