Former Sulu Gov.

Abdusakur Tan and three others have asked for an extra month to answer the
complaints against them over the July 2000 kidnapping of German correspondent Andreas Lorenz.

Tan, Ahmadjan Hassan, Dolphy Hairal Abdulkahal and Gulamo Uddin filed a motion on Nov. 3 with the
Ombudsman asking that they be given until Dec. 6 to submit their counter-affidavits.

In their Nov. 3 motion, they said that they received the Ombudsmans order for them to refute the
allegations only on Oct. 26 with a deadline of only 10 days.

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Also named respondents were Salip Abdullah, a Commander Daga and a Commander Asbi, as well as
several unidentified persons.

The Ombudsman has begun investigating the May 12 complaint of Temogen Tulawie accusing Tan of
kidnapping Lorenz, a correspondent for the news magazine Der Spiegel, on July 2, 2000, and holding him
for ransom.

Lorenz was one of 10 Western journalists seized on June 2, 2000, by Abu Sayyaf bandits while trying to
visit hostages earlier taken from a Malaysian resort. He and other journalists were released one day
after reportedly paying $25,000 in ransom.

While en route from Jolo to Zamboanga, rebels kidnapped him the second time, on July 2, 2000, after
tricking him that his help was needed to save the life of another German hostage, Renate Wallert.

Tulawie, whose family is a bitter political rival of the Tans, accused the former governor of conspiring
with kidnappers and pretending to negotiate with them to earn from the ransom payments.

Tulawie claimed that Tan had insisted that Der Speigel foreign editor Olaf Ihlau only talk and directly
negotiate with him, or else Lorenz could get harmed. He said it was Tan who received the ransom
payment from Ihlau.

Lorenz was released unharmed after 25 days in captivity. He later published an account from a diary he
kept during captivity identifying three of his captors, including one who used the alias Philip. Tulawie
claimed Philip was actually Salip Abdullah, whom Lorenz supposedly met at the then governors
house.

Tulawie also submitted Ihlaus affidavit, executed on April 12 before Consul Adrian Elmer S. Cruz of the
Philippine Embassy in Berlin, to support his allegations against Tan and the others.

Read more: http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/944366/ex-sulu-gov-facing-charges-for-kidnap-of-german-

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