The Abu Sayyaf group kidnapped Finns and citizens of six other countries on the island of Jolo in the Philippines.
A Philippine court has sentenced 17 members of the extremist Islamist group Abu Sayyaf to life imprisonment for their connection to the kidnapping of 21 people in 2000, according to the Philippine national news agency PNA.
The court found the convicts guilty of 21 charges, including kidnapping and deprivation of liberty for ransom. The defendants received life sentences for each count.
Among those convicted are those on the UN Security Council’s sanctions list Hilarion Roel Santos or Ahmed Islam Santos and Redendo Dellosa.
In April 2000, Abu Sayyaf, affiliated with the ISIS terrorist alliance, kidnapped 21 people from a Malaysian diving center on the island of Sipadan. Among them were 10 foreign tourists from Finland, Germany, France, South Africa and Lebanon.
Finnish hostages Risto Vahanen and Seppo Fränti and his fellow prisoners were released months later in September, when a ransom had been paid to the kidnappers after Libya acted as an intermediary.
The Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not reveal the details of the release at the time, but emphasized that Finland had not paid the kidnappers money in any form.
Abu Sayyaf’s goal was to create its own independent Muslim state in the southern Philippines. It acquired funds for its activities by kidnapping foreign tourists.
Many of the Abu Sayyaf leaders at the time of the kidnapping were arrested and prosecuted after the hostages were released. They were killed during a prison break in 2005.
AFP