Kidnappers demand US$11.2 million for return of Chinese tourist snatched in Malaysia
The kidnappers who snatched a Chinese tourist from a Malaysian holiday resort today demanded a ransom of US$11.2 million.
Malaysian Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said they received a note from the kidnappers demanding a ransom, which is equivalent to 70 million yuan.
Gao and the Filipino worker were abducted on April 2. Gao was shoved into a boat by gunmen and taken to an unknown location.Gao Huayun, a 29-year-old from Shanghai, had just spent about a day at the resort when she was taken along with Filipino hotel employee Marcy Dayawan, 40, from the Singamata Reef Resort in Malaysia's Sabah state.
"Gao’s family has appointed someone to negotiate for her safe release,” Zahid, whose ministry handles internal security and law enforcement, said today.
“We hope this case can be settled as soon as possible," he said.
“We have sent our team, the police and the negotiators to discuss through their so-called appointed middle person to negotiate the reduction of ransom,” Zahid told a local newspaper.No ransom was demanded for the Filipina resort worker who was also abducted last week, he said.Malaysia said at the weekend that Gao’s family in China had been contacted by telephone by her kidnappers.
However, a spokesman for the Chinese consulate in Kuching said they have yet to receive police notification about the ransom demand.Three men armed with M14 automatic rifles grabbed Dayawan from her room and on their way back to the boat seized Gao, who screamed "I don't want to go" in English, according to a police account.There were at least four other kidnappers waiting in the boat, and they left within minutes, witnesses said. No shots were fired.
The kidnappers are believed to be affiliated with Abu Sayyaf “sub-commander” Murphy Ambang Ladjia in the Philippines.
