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| Southeast Asia |
| Abu Sayyaf releases Jordanian journalist |
| 2013-12-05 |
| Abu Sayyaf militants have freed a Jordanian journalist after 18 months in captivity in the jungle of Sulu in the southern Philippines. Officials said Baker Atyani was recovered by police forces in the village of Igasan and has been taken to the hospital for medical examination. Baker Atyani, who works for the Arabic television news channel, Al Arabiya, has gone inside camps of the terror organization along with his two Filipino assistants to film leaders of the Abu Sayyaf that have been linked to al-Qaeda and Jemaah Islamiya, but was taken prisoner on June 12, 2012. Atyani's Filipino colleagues were freed in February this year. Atyani was released after several calls by the Cairo-based al-Azhar, Jerusalem Grand Mufti and the Islamic scholars of Mindanao, the Organization of the Islamic Cooperation, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, and after continuous effort by the Middle East Broadcasting Center. Some reports alleged that Atyani was a conduit for the Abu Sayyaf and that the ransom demand was only a cover to hide the flow of funding to the terror group, including Jemaah Islamiya, accused of a series of attacks and bombings in the Philippines. Security sources said Atyani arrived in Sulu on June 11 last year and went to the Abu Sayyaf the next day to secretly interview terror leaders and other militant commanders, including Jemaah Islamiya rebels hiding on the island. Authorities said Atyani had deceived local officials when he claimed to be filming government projects in Sulu, one of five provinces under the Muslim autonomous region. Local officials had repeatedly warned Atyani against interviewing the Abu Sayyaf, but the trio went ahead and secretly met with terrorist leaders, among them Nadzmie Alih. They were first reported missing after failing to return to their hostel, but phoned local officials two days later to say that they were still filming a documentary on the Abu Sayyaf. Atyani, who had previously interviewed Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan months before the September 11, 2001 attacks, contacted his colleagues to say that they were being held against their will. |
| Posted by:ryuge |