Isis-linked Abu Sayyaf decapitate Canadian hostage Robert Hall after ransom deadline passes
The Islamic State-linked Abu Sayyaf group has executed Canadian hostage Robert Hall in the Southern Philippines after a ransom deadline expired.
Al-Jazeera reported the death of the Canadian national at the hands of the extremist group, quoting an anonymous military source. Hall's execution by beheading was confirmed on Monday 13 June.
In Late May Abu Sayyaf issued a warning to authorities in a video which showed Robert Hall alongside Norwegian Kjartan Sekkingstad, demanding the payment of a $6.37m (£4.39m, Php 300m) 13 June.
Speaking to the camera directly, Hall detailed the destitute conditions he had endured with Kjartan Sekkingstad and a third hostage, Filipina Marites Flor. All three were shown wearing orange jump suits in the style used by Islamic State (Isis) in its executions.
"We live like this every day, go to bed like this. We have a hundred people heavily armed around us all the time that dictate to us and talk to us like children," he says.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said in a statement that current information indicates it is likely Hall has been killed. "It is with deep sadness that I have reason to believe that a Canadian citizen, Robert Hall, held hostage in the Philippines since September 21, 2015, has been killed by his captors," he said in a statement.
In April Abu Sayyaf executed Canadian national John Ridsdel, who was captured along with Hall and the other hostages in September 2015 from a holiday resort.
Robert Hall: Kidnapped by Abu Sayyaf in September 2015
Robert Hall was abducted along with fellow Canadian John Ridsdel, his girlfriend Marites Flor, and Norwegian national Kjartan Sekkingstad on 21 September 2015.
Hall had moved to live in the Philippines and had sailed there on a sailboat from British Colombia, the Calgary Herald reported. Born in Calgary, Hall was 58 when he was killed in an unknown location on the on the remote Jolo Island, where Abu Sayyaf is active.
Throughout his life, Hall worked as an insurance salesman and a welder, as well as holding an number of other odd jobs.
In images released by Abu Sayyaf, Hall appeared gaunt and bearded. He explained in his last video address that the trio had experienced appalling treatment.
Abu Sayyaf, a loose group numbering several hundred fighters, uses ransom money to fund its Islamic separatism campaign in southern Philippines.
One of its leaders, Isnilon Hapilon, who has a $5m bounty on his head, recently pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group operating in Syria and Iraq. However, the US has designated the group a terrorist entity for its connections to al-Qaeda.
In November Abu Sayyaf beheaded Malaysian hostage Bernard Then Ted Fen in an ostentatious act of violence, which has become the IS calling card throughout the world. Then Ted Fen was killed in the jungle not far from the Indanan town in Sulu province on 17 November.
In October 2014 the group claimed to have been paid 250m peso (£3.4m) for the release of two German hostages who were held for seven months.
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