17 Abu Sayyaf terrorists convicted  for Sipadan resort abductions in 2000

A PHILIPPINE trial court has convicted 17 members of the Abu Sayyaf terror group for kidnapping 21 tourists from a Malaysian dive resort in April 2000.

In a 157-page decision dated Oct. 16, Taguig regional trial court Presiding Judge Mariam G. Bien found the accused guilty of 21 counts of kidnapping and serious illegal detention with ransom, sentencing each of them to a 40-year jail term for each count.

They were also ordered to pay each of the 21 victims P100,000 in civil indemnity, P100,000 in moral damages and P100,000 in exemplary damages, with a 6% annual interest.

The charges against 13 other Abu Sayyaf members who have since died were dismissed, including Galib Andang alias Commaner Robot.

“The kidnappers… acted in concert in kidnapping and detaining the hostages,” according to a copy of the court decision sent by the Department of Justice to reporters on Monday. The abduction was “a carefully laid out plan to execute the crimes charged,” it added.

Of the 21 victims at the Sipadan Diving Resort in Malaysia, 10 were foreign tourists  — three Germans, two Finnish, two South Africans, one Lebanese and two French. The rest — nine Malaysians and two Filipinos — were resort workers.

After kidnapping the victims, the rebels took them hostage in the southern Philippine province of Sulu.

Two victims were killed during the ordeal — one was beheaded and one died during a military encounter. The rest were released one by one after their families paid ransom money.

The last hostage, a Filipino, escaped in June 2003.

DoJ said two of the 17 Abu Sayyaf members were under the United Nations Security Council’s sanction list.

“The UN Security Council tagged them both in 2008 for their association with Al-Qaida, Usama bin Laden or the Taliban and for ‘participating in the financing, planning, facilitating, preparing, or perpetrating of acts or activities by, in conjunction with, under the name of, on behalf of, or in support of and recruiting for the Abu Sayyaf Group, Jemaah Islamiyah and the Rajah Solaiman Movement,” it said in a statement.

Many of the rebels were arrested and prosecuted after the incident, but they died during an attempted jailbreak in Taguig City in 2005.

Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi mediated the crisis, leading to the release of six hostages in mid-2000. The hostages were flown on a Libyan aircraft, first to the United Arab Emirates and then to Tripoli, the Libyan capital. — Chloe Mari A. Hufana