In 2016, the Islamist terrorist group Abu Sayyaf kidnapped a German couple in the Philippines. The woman is shot, after an unfulfilled ransom demand, her partner is also brutally murdered. Authorities arrest two men believed to be responsible for the murders.
The suspected kidnappers of a German couple who were kidnapped in November 2016 and then killed have been arrested in the Philippines. The two Islamists are accused of kidnapping and killing a total of four foreigners, according to the authorities in the Southeast Asian country. They belonged to the notorious extremist organization Abu Sayyaf. According to a military spokesman, the two men were handed over to the police on the island of Jolo in Sulu province.
Those arrested, Almujer Yadah and Ben Quirino, are said to have kidnapped German sailor Jürgen Kantner and his partner in November 2016. The woman's body was later found with a gunshot wound on board a yacht floating in the Sulu Sea. Kantner was taken to Jolo and beheaded by his captors in early 2017. The hostage-takers had apparently tried to get a ransom. At the time, the federal government confirmed in a video message that the 70-year-old Kantner had been "barbarously murdered" by Abu Sayyaf fighters. The then Chancellor Angela Merkel spoke of a "disgusting act".
Abu Sayyaf is a group of Muslim rebels, some of whom work with the jihadist militia Islamic State (IS). Over the past three decades, Abu Sayyaf has carried out multiple bombings and extorted millions from kidnappings. The Abu Sayyaf members who have now been arrested are also believed to be responsible for the murders of Canadians John Ridsdel and Robert Hall, who were abducted from a tourist resort in September 2015 along with Hall's Filipino girlfriend and a Norwegian. The kidnappers killed Ridsdel and Hall but released the Filipino woman and the Norwegian.
