Dutch hostage joins Abu Sayyaf

SULU: Philippine National Police (PNP) Sulu Provincial Commander Pablo Labra reported Saturday that a Dutch hostage abducted by the Abu Sayyaf militants seven years has joined the terrorist group.

Identified as 57-year old Ewold Horn (pic), Labra said the kidnap victim turned outlaw together with Swiss national Lorenzo Vinciguerra were adopted by Abu Sayyaf militants and suspected MNLF members in Tawi-Tawi in 2012.

Horn and Vinciguerra visited the Municipality of Panglima Sugala in Tawi-Tawi (last province in southern Philippines) for bird watching purposes where they were kidnapped and brought to the Abu Sayyaf’s safe haven in Sulu.

In 2014, Vinciguerra managed to elude from his heavily armed captors when he killed a guard with a machete.

Labra said Horn had developed Stockholm syndrome, a condition where the captive starts feeling sympathetic toward his captors as a survival strategy.

The term was coined in 1973, following a bank robbery in Stockholm, Sweden where the hostages defended the robbers and refused to testify in court.

“We received information that Horn has developed Stockholm syndrome and has been spotted carrying a weapon,” claimed Labra.

“We really don’t know if he has fought troops, but if he engages security forces and the lives of our troops are put in grave danger then we have no other recourse but to fight back,” he added.

Labra said police forces were continuing to search for Horn and captives and, at the same time, maintaining operations against the Abu Sayyaf.

Philippine authorities have blamed the Abu Sayyaf and Islamic State (IS) for suicide bombings that hit a cathedral in Sulu’s capital town of Jolo earlier this year.

The bombings occurred two years after hundreds of Abu Sayyaf and pro-IS militants and civilian supporters took over Marawi City in Lanao del Sur and were only forced out after a five-month siege