Philippine officials confirmed Tuesday that Abu Sayyaf militants beheaded a Canadian man, the second Canadian hostage to be killed in two months after demands for a large ransom were not met. The hostage, Robert Hall, was abducted from a marina last September along with another Canadian, a Norwegian, and a Filipino. The other Canadian, former mining executive John Ridsdel, was beheaded in April. A presidential spokesman condemned “the brutal and senseless murder” of Hall, who had been held by Abu Sayyaf in the jungles of southern Sulu province for nine months. “This latest heinous crime serves to strengthen our government’s resolve to put an end to this reign of terror and banditry,” the spokesman said in a statement.
A militant video obtained by Philippine police officials and seen by the AP showed Hall in an orange shirt and kneeling in front of a black ISIS-style flag before he was killed in a jungle area. An Abu Sayyaf deadline for the payment of a large ransom lapsed Monday, and police later found a severed head of a Caucasian man outside a Catholic cathedral in Jolo, Sulu province’s main town. In Ottawa, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said there was “compelling reason to believe” that Hall had been killed by his captors. He said he was “horrified” by the killings and reaffirmed Canada’s refusal to pay ransoms. “The government of Canada will not and cannot pay ransoms for hostages to terrorist groups, as doing so would endanger the lives of more Canadians,” Trudeau said in a statement.
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