Sulu police documenting Atyani's abduction, captivity

COTABATO CITY - Freed kidnapped Jordanian journalist Baker Atyani is now in the custody of the Sulu provincial police, whose investigators will document his abduction and 18 months in captivity with Abu Sayyaf extremists in the island province.

Laisa Alamia, regional executive secretary of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, said Atyani had been examined by the doctors at the Sulu provincial hospital, where he was first brought by the policemen who found him Wednesday night in Barangay Igasan in Patikul town.

“He is now in the custody of the Sulu provincial police. He will be subjected to a debriefing process,” Alamia said.

Policemen reportedly found Atyani, reporter for the Al Arabiya News Channel, at about 7:30 p.m. wandering in a farm in Barangay Igasan.

Atyani and members of his documentation crew, Ramelito Vela and Rolando Letreto, were kidnapped sometime in June 2012 while doing a documentary project on Abu Sayyaf extremists in the island province of Sulu.

Atyani and his two Filipino crewmen were kidnapped while trying to link up with Abu Sayyaf militants for an interview somewhere in Sulu.

His two companions were freed last February, but Atyani, who gained prominence for interviewing Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan a few months before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, remained in the hands of his captors, until he was found in Barangay Igasan Wednesday night.

ARMM officials said the Abu Sayyaf is still holding more than 10 captives in Sulu.

Two of the captives are European photographers kidnapped last year while documenting endemic bird species in Tawi-Tawi, also an island province in ARMM.