Shanghai tourist abducted in Malaysia freed, to return soon
Print Edition
A SHANGHAI woman who was abducted nearly two months ago from a Malaysian diving resort was freed yesterday, the Chinese Consulate in Malaysia said.
An official told Xinhua news agency Malaysian police informed them that Gao Huayun, 29, was freed about 5pm local time and had arrived in Sabah, the Borneo island state of Malaysia where she had been abducted, along with a 40-year-old Filapina resort worker, in a late night raid.
With the help of their Philippine counterparts, two Malaysian officers managed to rescue Gao and the Filipina from a remote mountainous location on the southern Philippine island of Jolo, a security official told Malaysian newspaper The Star. The two women were freed after negotiations, and no ransom had been paid, the newspaper said.
The kidnappers, based in the southern Philippines, had previously demanded more than US$11 million for Gao.
Visiting Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak told Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing yesterday that authorities would escort Gao back home as soon as possible.
Najib credited Gao’s release to cooperation between Malaysian and Philippine security forces and confirmed no ransom was paid.
On April 2, the day Gao was kidnapped, her family in Shanghai learned she had won a place on an MBA course in the UK.
A group of men armed with rifles had arrived at the Sabah resort by speedboat. They seized Gao from the balcony of her room, and also took Marcy Dayawan, a receptionist, local police said previously.
The area of eastern Sabah is popular with Chinese tourists for its world-class scuba diving but is also notorious for lawlessness and kidnappings blamed on bandits from the southern Philippines.
The Philippine military said earlier that the Abu Sayyaf, a small band of Islamic militants infamous for kidnappings for ransom, were the prime suspects.
The abductors are believed to be affiliated with Abu Sayyaf “sub-commander” Murphy Ambang Ladjia, who was involved in kidnapping 21 people from another Sabah diving resort in 2000.
Twenty of those hostages were released within five months, reportedly after hefty ransoms were paid. A Filipino captive was held until 2003.
The Philippine government ramped up security last year after an incursion by Filipino Muslim militants left dozens dead, and subsequently declared eastern Sabah safe for tourism.
However, there has been a spate of kidnappings in recent months off Sabah, which is just a short boat ride from the southern Philippines, home to Muslim militants and kidnap gangs.
Last month, a Chinese fish farm manager in Sabah was kidnapped and was also believed to have been taken to the southern Philippines.
In November, suspected Abu Sayyaf militants killed a Taiwan tourist and kidnapped his wife from another Sabah resort.
The woman was released a month later in the southern Philippines. Authorities didn’t say whether a ransom was paid.
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