A Malaysian businessman said Wednesday he would write a book on the truth behind the negotiations for the release of foreigners held by Filipino Muslim rebels on the island of Jolo.
Yusof Hamdan helped in the talks to end a six-month hostage crisis involving nine Malaysians and 12 other foreigners kidnapped by the Muslim extremist group Abu Sayyaf in April.
Yusof, 50, told the national news agency Bernama that the book would expose several personalities whom he alleged pocketed some of the ransom money but did not name anyone.
He claimed several people, including Malaysians, had sabotaged and deliberately prolonged the negotiations at the expense of endangering the lives of the hostages.
"Some of these people interfered in the negotiations and caused the crisis to be prolonged. They literally made it more costly in the end because through their machinations, they managed to jack up the price for the release of the hostages and thus get a bigger cut of the proceeds.
"They shamelessly used the names of senior political leaders to claim legitimacy for their action," he said.
Yusof said he has cassette recordings and written evidence of such attempts by "certain lower ranking officials and lackeys of some politicians and opportunists."
One recording during a negotiation to release the last three Malaysian hostages showed attempts by a high-ranking Philippine official to solicit money from a Malaysian emissary, he said.
"I have definite proof of this and I shall reveal all this in my book so that the whole world will finally know who the crooks and the innocents are," he added.
Yusof said he was writing the book to clear suspicions that Malaysian personalities, including himself, had used their positions for personal gain.
The German weekly Der Spiegel last month reported that Philippine President Joseph Estrada pocketed around 40 percent of a 20 million-dollar (22.5 million-euro) ransom allegedly paid by donors in Germany and Libya to the Abu Sayyaf kidnappers.
Der Spiegel quoted German secret police as saying that Roberto Aventajado, the Philippine government's leading negotiator in the crisis, earned 10 percent of the total -- KUALA LUMPUR (AFP)
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