A retired Italian priest held hostage for six months by suspected Muslim militants left a Philippines hospital yesterday, a day after his release.
Rolando Del Torchio waved to journalists as he walked to a waiting ambulance after spending the night in a military hospital in the southern port of Zamboanga.
“The victim is emaciated. He has lost a lot of weight compared with what we saw in his old pictures,” regional military spokesman Major Filemon Tan said.
The Italian was held captive by the Abu Sayyaf group after armed men snatched the then-56-year-old at gunpoint at his pizza restaurant in the southern city of Dipolog in October last year.
“The ASG was behind this kidnapping,” Tan said, referring to the group by its initials.
It was not clear where Del Torchio was headed, but the military spokesman said the Italian embassy had arranged for a chartered plane to fly him out of Zamboanga.
The authorities found Del Torchio late on Friday aboard a ferry docked on the remote southern island of Jolo, the main Abu Sayyaf stronghold about 950km south of Manila.
The Abu Sayyaf is a small group infamous for kidnapping foreigners and demanding huge ransoms, as well as for being behind deadly bombings in the mainly Catholic Asian nation.
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