By Hader Glang
ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines
A spokesperson for a notorious Southern Philippines militant group who had threatened to behead two German hostages says it has released them after a ransom demand was paid.
An Abu Sayyaf spokesperson - who identified himself as Abu Rami - told a local Philippines radio station that Stefan Viktor Okonek, 74, and his wife Henrike Dielen, 55, were freed after a ransom thought to be Php250 million ($5.5 million) was left in a jungle clearing.
"We have freed the Germans. We have received the ransom in full we had been demanding so we did not kill one of the Germans," the man told Radio Mindanao network around 20.50 Friday local time (15.50 Turkish Time).
The couple was seized on their yacht off the coast of the Philippines’ southern Palawan Island in April.
The man refused to give any other details but said the two captives are free after negotiators or emissaries delivered the P250 million ransom in full.
He did not reveal the identity of the negotiators.
The spokesperson had earlier said that the group would behead Okonek at 15.00 local time in an undisclosed jungle area of Sulu province – an Abu Sayyaf stronghold - if Germany did not pay up and cease support for the United States-led campaign against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in Iraq and Syria.
As of 22.18 (17.18) there had been no official confirmation of the two being freed by either the Philippines or German governments.
www.aa.com.tr/en
