Phuket: Australian kidnapped in Philippines appears in 'Abu Sayyaf video'
HONG KONG: A new video emerged on Wednesday of an Australian man kidnapped by suspected Muslim extremists in the Philippines more than a year ago.
Agence France-Presse
Thursday 27 December 2012, 09:38AM
Warren Rodwell, from Sydney, was seized from his home in the southern Philippine town of Ipil on December 5, 2011.
It was believed that he was taken by the Abu Sayyaf group, which he confirms in the new video.
The SITE monitoring group said the one minute and 57 second clip had been posted on a YouTube channel linked to Abu Sayyaf.
In it, Rodwell says the date is December 16, 2012 and holds a newspaper from the previous day. He says he was kidnapped by Abu Sayyaf 54 weeks ago.
He last appeared in a video in May that was believed to be dated from the end of March. In another video in January, reportedly sent to his Filipina wife Miraflor Gutang, Rodwell said his captors were demanding US$2 million in ransom.
At the time, Philippine authorities said it was possible Rodwell was being held by the Abu Sayyaf, an Islamic extremist group founded in the 1990s with seed money from Al-Qaeda.
