National Abu Sayyaf releases kidnapped Norwegian for P30-million ransom

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MANILA - Reports reaching Manila indicated that the Al-Qaeda linked Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) released late Friday night their Norwegian kidnap victim Kjartan Sekkingstad at a remote village in Indanan, Sulu.



The area where Sekkingstad was released is one of the sites where government forces have been conducting a massive offensive against the ASG in the past few months, police and military intelligence reports said on Saturday.



A police and military intelligence report seen by journalists in Manila indicated that Kjartan Sekkingstad was released by his captors at around 10:30 p.m. Friday in the vicinity of Brgy. Buanza in Indanan, Sulu.



The intelligence report informed that Sekkingstad was set free after ASG received an estimated PhP30 million in ransom money.



The intelligence report said that the release was facilitated by Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) Commander Tahil Sali.



Sekkingstad was immediately bought to the house of Sulu Governor Sakur Tan, in the middle of an electricity outage.



Sekkingstad, along with Canadians John Risdel and Robert Hall, and Filipina Marites Flor, were snatched in late 2015 while they were on vacation at Oceanview resort in Samal Island in Davao del Norte.



A few weeks after the kidnapping, the ASG demanded ransom for the safe release of their kidnap victims.



The two Canadians were beheaded by the ASG after they failed to receive the ransom money.</s></s>ASG HOSTAGES. Masked gunmen surround Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) hostages in a jungle setting earlier this year. Video screengrab from SITE Intelligence Group

MANILA, Philippines (3rd UPDATE) – The terrorist Abu Sayyaf Group has released its Norwegian hostage Kjartan Sekkingstad.

The Abu Sayyaf released Sekkingstad at around 2 pm Friday, September 16, in Patikul, Sulu, Chief Peace Adviser Jesus Dureza said in a statement Saturday night, September 17.

"His release from captivity capped months of quiet, patient but determined efforts with the assistance of all sectors," Dureza said.

Dureza said he had a phone conversation with Sekkingstad whose first words to him were, "Thank you to President Duterte."

He said that the men of Moro National Liberation Liberation Front leader Nur Misuari and former Sulu governor Sakur Tan, "and other volunteers" helped facilitate Sekkingstad's release.

"He is now staying overnight at the place of MNLF Chairman Nur Misuari in Barangay Kagay who volunteered to host his stay due to heavy rains and nightfall....I will fly him out of Jolo town tomorrow morning," Dureza added.

Sekkingstad is the last Abu Sayyaf captive from the group of 4 abducted in Samal Island in Davao del Norte in September 2015.

Norway said the release was a "positive development," adding that it was closely monitoring the situation and working with Philippine authorities to bring Sekkingstad to safety.

"According to Philippine authorities, Sekkingstad is now in a relatively safe place," Norway's Foreign Minister Borge Brende said in a written comment to Agence France-Presse.

"We refrain from celebrating until Sekkingstad has been safely handed over to Philippine authorities."

Ransom paid?

Sekkingstad's captors freed him after reportedly receiving a ransom of P30 million ($627,228), according to a source from the intelligence unit of Joint Task Group Sulu.

The source also said that the release was facilitated by the group of MNLF Commander Tahil Sali, and that Sekkingstad was brought to the house of the former Sulu governor while there was a brownout in the area.

The Armed Forces of the Philippines said in a statement on Saturday night that "intense pressure" from pursuing government troops led to Sekkingstad's release.

"Under the intense pressure of focused military operations, the terrorist kidnap-for-ransom Abu Sayyaf Group was constrained to release Sekkingstad as holding him under custody slows down their continues movement," the AFP said.

Earlier, President Rodrigo Duterte said P50 million had been paid for the Norwegian's release. On August 25, Duterte said despite the payment of the ransom, Sekkingstad had not yet been released, and that the Abu Sayyaf wanted more money.

"They kept on postponing it [the release] because of the huge sum of money. Millions. 'Yung Norwegian, bayad na 'yon (Ransom has been paid for the Norwegian)," Duterte told reporters last August.

Duterte was supposed to present Sekkingstad in a briefing at the Mindanao Development Authority office in Davao City early Saturday night, according to a Palace media advisory, but the event was cancelled due to bad weather in Sulu.

Filipina Marites Flor had been set free earlier. Her boyfriend, Robert Hall, and Hall's fellow Canadian John Ridsdel were beheaded after the deadline for their ransom payment lapsed in June and April, respectively. The Canadian government is observing a no-ransom policy.

On June 25, Norwegian Ambassador Erik Forner went to see Duterte during Flor's release. The two leaders talked about negotiating for the release of Sekkingstad. – with reports from Agence France-Presse/Rappler.com

$1 = P47.82</s>ABU SAYYAF bandits on Sunday freed three Indonesian tugboat crew members in Sulu, a day after they released a Norwegian captive.

Indonesian sailors Teo Kopong, Lorenz Koten and Emmanuel, who were kidnapped in July in Sabah, were handed over, along with Norwegian hostage Kjartan Sekkingstad, to Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) founder Nur Misuari, who was said to have “assisted” in their release and provided shelter.

The kidnappers were reportedly paid P30 million in ransom following negotiations with former Indonesian army general Kivlan Zein.

No other details surrounding the negotiations were available, but the release of the hostages came after the Abu Sayyaf freed Sekkingstad for a P30-million ransom payment.

The militants handed over Sekkingstad to an MNLF commander named Tahil Sali, who allegedly helped in the negotiations, according to an army report.

The Philippine military’s Western Mindanao Command (Westmincom) had linked Sali to deadly attacks against government forces in Sulu, where he was said to fought alongside the Abu Sayyaf.

Zein, through MNLF chieftain Misuari, also negotiated the release of 14 kidnapped Indonesian sailors in Sulu in May this year.

The Abu Sayyaf, which has pledged allegiance to the Islamic State, is still holding four Malaysian sailors, three Filipino fishermen, a Dutch photographer and a Japanese treasure hunter in southern Philippines.

The three Indonesian sailors were kidnapped on July 9 at Lahad Datu in Sabah.

Maj. Felimon Tan, Westmincom spokesman, said the freed hostages were brought to the Camp Teodulfo Bautista Station Hospital in Jolo, the capital of Sulu, for medical examinations and debriefing.

“The release of the kidnap victims is an offshoot of the ongoing military operations to sustain pressure against the [Abu Sayyaf], and the assistance of the MNLF,” he said.

‘Lucky to be alive’

 Escorted by a small contingent of Jolo police on Sunday, Misuari, Presidential Peace Adviser Jesus Dureza, the freed captives and local officials met in a building surrounded by hundreds of MNLF fighters before leaving for the military camp.

Sekkingstad appeared gaunt and frail as he was handed over to Dureza along with the three Indonesian seamen who had been held captive with him.

“I am so very happy and lucky to be alive,” said Sekkingstad, heavily bearded and wearing a camouflage jacket, told reporters in the town of Indanan before being flown to meet President Rodrigo Duterte.

Sekkingstad was abducted by the Abu Sayyaf in September last year from a high-end tourist resort in Samal Island that he managed.

Two Canadians taken hostage at the same time, John Ridsdel and Robert Hall, were later beheaded by the group after a ransom demand of about P300 million ($6.5 million) was not met.

Sekkingstad showed the press his backpack with his rubber slippers, plastic water jug and other items he used in captivity, saying that he would never lose these “souvenirs.”

Sekkingstad and Dureza were transported to an airbase where a plane flew them out to Davao City for the meeting with Duterte.

The three freed Indonesians were taken to Zamboanga City where a retired Indonesian general was waiting to pick them up.

No ransom for Norwegian

 Norwegian foreign affairs communications chief Frode Andersen told AFP by phone that “the Norwegian government does not pay ransom in this case or any other case.”

Presidential Communications Secretary Martin Andanar also said “the [Philippine] government maintains the no-ransom policy.”

“If ransom was indeed handed over from a third party or the family, we would not know. What we know is that the government does not give ransom money to [Abu Sayyaf] kidnappers,” Andanar said in a radio interview.

A spokesman for the Abu Sayyaf was quoted in a local newspaper on Sunday as saying the group received P30 million (about $625,000) for the Norwegian.

Last month, President Duterte told reporters private negotiators paid P50 million to the Abu Sayyaf for the release of Sekkingstad, but the group demanded P250 million more.

The Abu Sayyaf is a loose network of militants formed in the 1990s with seed money from Osama bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda network.

It is based in remote Muslim-populated southern islands in the mainly Catholic Philippines, and has earned millions of dollars in ransom from kidnappings, often targeting foreigners.

While its leaders have in recent years pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group, analysts say the Abu Sayyaf is mainly focused on a lucrative kidnapping business rather than religious ideology.

The group, which is blamed for the worst terror attacks in Philippine history and is listed by the United States as a terrorist organization, has been the target of a military operation since August.</s>ZAMBOANGA CITY: Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) militants linked to the Islamic State have freed Norwegian hostage Kjartan Sekkingstad following negotiations with the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), the military said on Saturday.

Sekkingstad was turned over by the rebel group late Friday to MNLF commander Tahil Sali in the village of Buanza in Sulu’s Indanan town. Reports said P30 million in ransom was paid to the Abu Sayyaf in exchange for Sekkingstad’s freedom.

Last month, President Rodrigo Duterte told reporters that private negotiators paid P50 million to the ASG for the safe release of Sekkingstad, but the group demanded P250 million more.

Norwegian Ambassador Erik Forner, who previously met with Duterte in Davao City, thanked the President for his efforts to secure the release of Sekkingstad.

Col. Edgard Arevalo, head of the public affairs office of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), said Sekkingstad was released at about 4 p.m. on Saturday.

“Mr. Sekkingstad will proceed to the Provincial Capitol for his turnover to proper authorities,” Arevalo said.

“The release of the kidnap victim is an offshoot of the ongoing military operations to sustain pressure against the ASG and the assistance of the MNLF,” the military official added.

Simultaneous land, air, naval and police operations were conducted against Abu Sayyaf militants following the deadly bombing of a night market in Davao City that killed 15 peopl.

Members of the Naval Commander Amphibious Task Group 80.2, which conducted raids in the islands of Pata and Kalinggalang Caluang in Sulu, confiscated 15 unregistered motorized boats, including one believed to be used by Abu Sayyaf leader Alhabsy Misaya, who is behind the kidnapping of Indonesian and Malaysian tugboat crews.

Arevalo said AFP chief Ricardo Visaya commended the soldiers who sustained the pressure on the militants.

“He expects there will be more kidnap victims released under the same circumstances,” he added.

Sekkingstad was kidnapped along with Canadians John Ridsdel and Robert Hall and Maritess Flor, a Filipina, in September last year in a resort in Samal Island in Davao del Norte province.

Ridsdel and Hall were beheaded by the ASG when their families failed to pay the ransom demanded by the group. Flor was released by the militants in June.

The ASG is still holding more than a dozen other hostages, including Malaysian and Indonesian tugboat crew and Filipino fishermen kidnapped in Sabah.

WITH REPORTS FROM ANTHONY VARGAS AND PNA</s>A Norwegian man freed after almost a year in captivity by the Abu Sayyaf terror group in the Philippines says the experience was “devastating”.

Kjartan Sekkingstad said that he and his fellow captives, two of whom were Canadians who were subsequently beheaded, were treated like slaves.

Sekkingstad was freed on September 17. He was one of four captives seized by the extremist gang at a resort he ran on Samal Island in September 2015.

Sekkingstad said that he was regularly threatened with execution.

Two of his fellow captives, Canadians John Ridsel and Robert Hall, were beheaded earlier this year. A Philippine woman, Marites Flor, was freed in June.

“I am very happy to be alive and free,” Mr. Sekkingstad told reporters following a meeting with President Rodrigo Duterte and Norwegian Embassy officials in Davao City, the president’s hometown. “It’s a wonderful feeling.”

When he arrived in Davao City, the Norwegian was heavily bearded and wearing a camouflage jacket and carrying a backpack that he said had stopped a bullet and saved his life during a clash between troops and militants. He was clean-shaven and wearing fresh clothes when he met the president.

Sekkingstad told reporters upon arriving in Davao City that the Abu Sayyaf militants had forced him and the other captives to act as porters.

He said that after the beheadings began he was told constantly that he would be executed, and survived several clashes between the militants and Philippine troops.

“We were treated like slaves,’’ he said, describing the captivity as “devastating.”

The two Canadians were killed after Canada’s government refused to pay millions of dollars in ransom to the militants, who have sworn allegiance to Islamic State and have earlier links to al Qaeda and have carried out bombings, assassinations and kidnappings for ransom, often ending in murder.

Duterte said recently that 50 million pesos ($1.1 million) had been paid to Abu Sayyaf as ransom for Sekkingstad. Subsequently, the president said that the group wanted even more money. He didn’t elaborate on the source of the payments or how they were made.

Sekkingstad was released September 17 in Jolo, the capital of Sulu, a predominantly Muslim and impoverished island south of Manila, but had to stay there overnight because of bad weather. He was expected to fly to Manila later on September 18. It was unclear if and when he will return to Norway.

Military spokesman Brig. Gen. Restituto Padilla said that three Indonesian fishermen who had been kidnapped recently by Abu Sayyaf were released September 18. He said he was “unaware if any ransom has been paid.” The Indonesians were flown to the military’s regional command center in western Mindanao island and handed over to Indonesian authorities.

Abu Sayyaf is believed to still hold 11 foreigners and six Filipinos captive, the military said. The group is believed to have about 400 members.

Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg welcomed the release of Sekkingstad and thanked Duterte and presidential peace adviser Jose Dureza, who negotiated the release, for working to free him.

“This has been a challenging case, and has put an indescribable strain on Mr. Sekkingstad himself and his family and friends,” Solberg said September 18. “The violence committed against innocent people by the Abu Sayyaf terrorist organization can only be met by our condemnation and disgust.”

Abu Sayyaf has come under recent pressure from the Philippine armed forces as Duterte ordered a new offensive against them. The group responded with a deadly bomb attack September 2 in Davao City that killed 15 people and injured dozens more.

Sekkingstad was handed over by his Abu Sayyaf captors to rebels from the larger Moro National Liberation Front, which has signed a peace deal with the Philippine government and helped negotiate his release. On September 18, he was handed over to Philippine authorities, along with three Indonesian fishermen freed separately by the Abu Sayyaf.

Sekkingstad said he survived more than a dozen clashes between Philippine forces and his captors in the lush jungles of Sulu province.

Sekkingstad was kidnapped from a yacht club he helped managed on southern Samal Island on September 21, 2015, along with Canadians Ridsdel and Hall and Hall’s Filipino girlfriend, Marites Flor.

Ridsdel was beheaded in April, and Hall was decapitated in June after ransom deadlines lapsed. When Flor was freed in June, she recounted in horror how the militants rejoiced while watching the beheadings.</s>MANILA, Philippines — Abu Sayyaf extremists on Saturday freed a Norwegian man kidnapped a year ago in the southern Philippines with two Canadians who were later beheaded and a Filipino woman who has been released by the ransom-seeking militants, officials said.

Kjartan Sekkingstad was freed in Patikul town in Sulu province and was eventually secured by rebels from the larger Moro National Liberation Front, which has signed a peace deal with the government and helped negotiate his release, Philippine government officials said.

Sekkingstad, held in jungle captivity since being kidnapped last September, was to stay overnight at the house of Moro National Liberation Front chairman Nur Misuari in Sulu and then meet with Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Sunday, said Jesus Dureza, who advises Duterte on peace talks with insurgent groups.

When he spoke on the phone with Sekkingstad, Dureza said the Norwegian expressed his gratitude to Duterte.

A plan to fly the freed hostage out of Sulu, a jungle-clad Muslim region about 950 kilometres (590 miles) south of Manila, was scrapped Saturday because of bad weather, Dureza said.

It was not immediately clear whether Sekkingstad had been ransomed off. Duterte suggested in a news conference last month that 50 million pesos ($1 million) had been paid to the militants, but that they continued to hold on to him. The military said Saturday that relentless assaults forced the extremists to release the hostage.

Sekkingstad fell ill while in captivity, according to an army officer who helped monitor the kidnapping.

“Under the intense pressure of focused military operations, the terrorist kidnap-for-ransom Abu Sayyaf group was constrained to release Sekkingstad, as holding him under custody slows down their continued movement,” said military spokesman Col. Edgard Arevalo.

Military chief Gen. Ricardo Visaya warned the militants to release their other captives, including a Dutch birdwatcher and Indonesian and Malaysian tugboat crewmen, “or suffer annihilation.”

While Duterte has pursued peace talks with Misuari’s group and the larger Moro Islamic Liberation Front, he has ordered the military to destroy the Abu Sayyaf, a smaller but more brutal band that the president says aims to establish an Islamic state or caliphate.

“They are no longer hungry for autonomy. They are hungry for a fight to establish a caliphate in Southeast Asia,” Duterte told troops on Saturday, although his predecessors have regarded the militants as a loose collective of bandits.

Sekkingstad was kidnapped from a marina on southern Samal Island on Sept. 21, 2015, with Canadians John Ridsdel and Robert Hall and Hall’s Filipino girlfriend, Marites Flor, sparking a massive land and sea search by Philippine forces.

The Abu Sayyaf demanded a huge ransom for the release of the foreigners, and released videos in which they threatened the captives in a lush jungle clearing where they displayed Islamic State group-style black flags.

Ridsdel was beheaded in April and Hall was decapitated in June after ransom deadlines lapsed. When Flor was freed in June, she recounted in horror how the militants rejoiced while watching the beheadings.

“It’s so painful because I saw them moments before they got beheaded,” Flor told reporters in June in southern Davao city, where she was flown to meet then President-elect Duterte.

“They were watching it and they were happy,” she said of the militants, adding that she did not witness the killings.

Government forces launched a major offensive against the Abu Sayyaf after the beheadings of the Canadians sparked condemnations from then-Philippine President Benigno Aquino III and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who called on other nations not to pay ransoms if their citizens are abducted to discourage the brutal militants from carrying out more kidnappings.

The Abu Sayyaf has been blacklisted as a terrorist organization by the U.S. and the Philippines for deadly bombings, kidnappings and beheadings. Without any known foreign funding, the extremists have relied on ransom kidnappings, extortion and other acts of banditry, and some commanders have pledged loyalty to the Islamic State group partly in the hope of obtaining funds.</s>Philippine militants got ransom for Norwegian, say analysts

A notorious kidnapping-for-ransom gang in the strife-torn southern Philippines enjoyed another lucrative payday when it released a Norwegian hostage after a year in captivity, analysts said Monday.

A bearded and bedraggled Kjartan Sekkingstad was released Saturday on a remote southern island after what analysts said was almost certainly a payment in the thousands of dollars after the Abu Sayyaf demanded millions.

The Philippine and Norwegian governments have denied paying ransom for the release of Sekkingstad, while highlighting their efforts to secure his freedom after the kidnappers had beheaded two of his fellow hostages, both Canadian.

Security analysts said the Abu Sayyaf would never release a hostage without ransom.

"There was a ransom payment negotiated by intermediaries of the family with diplomatic help. My information is 30 million pesos ($625,000) was paid," said Rodolfo Mendoza, senior analyst of Manila-based Philippine Institute for Peace, Violence and Terrorism Research.

"Hostage-taking is the Abu Sayyaf's fund-raising activity," Mendoza, a former police general, told AFP.

Sekkingstad's brother Odd Kåre Sekkingstad declined to comment when asked by AFP about reports of a ransom.

His sibling was abducted by the Abu Sayyaf from a tourist resort in September 2015, alongside a Filipina who has been freed, and the two Canadians who were beheaded in April and June.

Philippine authorities have said the Norwegian was freed due to a military offensive which President Rodrigo Duterte ordered against the militants, and with the help of a separate Muslim rebel group holding peace talks with the government.

Duterte himself had said last month that 50 million pesos ($1 million) had been paid for Sekkingstad's release.

"The Norwegian, that's already paid," Duterte told reporters.

"I don't know (where the money came from), maybe my bank," he said in jest when asked who paid the ransom.

Zachary Abuza, a Southeast Asian security expert at the National War College in the United States, told AFP there was no doubt ransom was paid.

"The (Abu Sayyaf) did not release him out of the goodness of their hearts... governments have to deny paying ransoms, as it incentivises more hostage-taking. But often governments will use third parties."

The payment would allow Abu Sayyaf to buy more guns through the black market, Abuza added.

The Abu Sayyaf, blamed for the nation's worst terror attacks, is a loose network of militants formed in the 1990s with seed money from Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network.

Based in remote Muslim-populated southern islands of the mainly Catholic Philippines and listed by the US as a terrorist organisation, some of its leaders have since pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group.

In 2014 the Abu Sayyaf boasted of receiving 250 million pesos for two German hostages it freed after six months in captivity.

In 2013 the militants also released an Australian ex-soldier after holding him for 15 months, with a local politician who acted as a negotiator saying ransom was paid.</s>Three Indonesians freed by militant Abu Sayyaf group in Philippines

MANILA, Sept 18 (Reuters) - Three Indonesian fishermen held by Islamic State-linked rebels in the Philippines have been released, a Philippine military spokesman said on Sunday, just hours after the militias freed a Norwegian man after a year-long ordeal.

The Indonesians - identified as Lorence Koten, Teo Doros Kofong, and Emmanuel Arakian - were released by the Abu Sayyaf group on Saturday night at an undisclosed place in Sulu in the Southwest Philippines, said spokesman Major Filemon Tan. They were taken on July 9 this year from the Malaysian state of Sabah, he said.

The Indonesians were set free just hours after the same group notorious for kidnappings, beheadings and extortion released Norwegian captive Kjartan Sekkingstad, who met President Rodrigo Duterte in Davao City on Sunday evening.

Sekkingstad was taken from an upscale resort on Samal island in Davao del Norte along with a Filipina, who has already been freed, and two Canadians, whom the militants later executed.

While it is widely believed that no captives are released by the Abu Sayyaf without the payment of ransom, the Philippine government said it did not pay the group and was unaware of any payment made by other parties for the release of the victims.

"I would like to reiterate that the government maintains the no-ransom policy," Communications Minister Martin Andanar said. Now if there was a third party who made the payment, if it's the family (of those kidnapped), we are not aware of that."

The Philippine military insists the release of the kidnap victims was a result of the ongoing intensified military operations against the Abu Sayyaf, with the assistance of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), one of the two major Muslim rebel groups based in the south of the mainly Catholic nation.

In a media briefing in Davao City, Duterte lauded the efforts of his peace adviser Jesus Dureza, former Sulu Governor Abdusakur Mahail Tan, and MNLF leader Nur Misuari.

Dureza confirmed the release of the Indonesian captives.

Duterte told Sekkingstad and the Norwegian government that justice would be sought for his abduction.

"I am very happy to be alive and free," Sekkingstad said at the briefing.

A new round of peace talks between the Philippine government and the Maoist-led rebels resumed in Norway in August to end nearly five decades of conflict that has killed more than 40,000 people. (Reporting by Enrico dela Cruz and Manuel Mogato; Editing by Eric Meijer and Elaine Hardcastle)</s>FOLLOWING the release of one Norwegian and three Indonesian hostages, the military on Sunday vowed to maintain intense pressure on the Abu Sayyaf terrorist and kidnap group to force it to free other captives.

Gen. Ricardo Visaya, chief of staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), said the military would be unrelenting in its operations against the bandit group.

“We will continue to forge the support and cooperation of the local residents who will ultimately benefit from the success of these operations,” he said.

Maj. Felimon Tan, spokesman of the AFP’s Western Mindanao Command, claimed that relentless land, sea and air operations forced the Abu Sayyaf to free Norwegian kidnap victim Kjartan Sekkingstad.

The Naval Commander Amphibious Task Group conducted raids at the islands of Pata and Kalinggalang Caluang in Sulu, resulting in the confiscation of 15 unregistered motorized boats, Tan said.

A boat was also seized by the Philippine National Police in Parang, Sulu. The boat was believed to have been used by Abu Sayyaf member Alhabsy Misaya, who was said to have been responsible for kidnapping Indonesian and Malaysian tugboat crews in the high seas in the past months.

Commenting on reports that ransom money went to the kidnappers, Arevalo said: “We have not received such information [on ransom]although we can always validate that on the ground. Maybe it is not that apparent to the public the effect, or how the intensity of the unrelenting conduct of operations really falls on the Abu Sayyaf Group.”

Brig. Gen. Arnel de la Vega, commander of the AFP Joint Task Force Sulu, claimed the Abu Sayyaf was forced to release Sekkingstad because his presence “slows them down” and releasing him would allow the kidnap group to evade soldiers.

Sekkingstad was kidnapped along with Canadians John Ridsdel and Robert Hall and Maritess Flor, a Filipina, in September last year in a resort at Samal Island in Davao del Norte province.

Ridsdel and Hall were beheaded by the Abu Sayyaf supposedly after no ransom money was paid. Flor was released by the group in June.
Abu Sayyaf frees a Norwegian hostage for a ransom of ₱30 million (US$638,000) and releases three kidnapped Indonesians from Sabah.