A Philippine court has sentenced 17 Islamic militants to life imprisonment for the kidnapping of 21 people, including European tourists and Asian workers, at a diving resort in Malaysia over two decades ago, authorities reported on Monday. The militants belonged to the Abu Sayyaf group, which is considered a terrorist organization by both the Philippines and the United States.
Among the 17 convicted are two Abu Sayyaf leaders, Hilarion Santos and Redendo Dellosa, who were already on the United Nations' terrorist list, according to the Department of Justice in Manila. The sentence imposed by the Taguig court, a suburb of the capital region, is life imprisonment with the possibility of parole after 30 years in prison.
The kidnapping took place in April 2000, when Abu Sayyaf militants attacked the resort located on Sipadan Island in Malaysia. Armed with assault rifles and machetes, they took away tourists and Western employees of the tourist center. Abu Sayyaf is a splinter group from the separatist struggle of Muslims in southern Philippines, a region with a Muslim minority in a predominantly Catholic country.
The hostages, besides Western tourists, were Malaysians and Filipinos who worked at the resort. After being taken to the jungles of Sulu, a province in southern Philippines, they were kept under severe conditions before being released in exchange for a multimillion-dollar ransom, allegedly provided by the Libyan dictator at the time, Muammar Gaddafi.
Two journalists from The Associated Press who obtained permission from Abu Sayyaf to interview the hostages in captivity found the victims terrified, sitting on the ground on banana leaves, surrounded by an improvised fence made of tree branches. The organization has been weakened in recent years by military defeats, internal rebellions, and the capture of leaders and fighters, including Ghalib Andang, who led one of the kidnappings and was killed in 2005 by police commandos during an escape attempt in Manila.
