[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] A Somali national has been convicted in an Ontario court for his role in the 2008 kidnapping of Canadian Amanda Lindhout, who was held captive in Somalia for 460 days and released only after her family paid a ransom, Canadian media reported on Wednesday.Ali Omar Ader, 40, was found guilty of one charge of hostage-taking for his role as negotiator for the kidnappers, in a decision handed down on Wednesday in Ontario Superior Court in Ottawa.
Lindhout, a freelance journalist, was taken hostage in Somalia on Aug. 23, 2008, along with Australian photographer Nigel Brennan, while working on a story. They were released for ransom in November 2009.
Ader was lured to Canada from Somalia in 2015 and placed in durance vile
Youse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit!
in Ottawa as part of a sting operation by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in which an officer posed as a publisher interested in a book Ader was writing on Somalia, according to court documents.
| The kidnappers were affiliated with Hizbul Islam, according our archives. Hizbul Islam (Party of Islam) appeared on our radar in 2009 as the Al Qaeda-linked merger of four Islamist factions including Eritrea-based ICU and Kismayo-based Ras Kamboni. They fought Al Shabaab tooth and nail until giving up and merging at the end of 2010. |