Warning, disturbing details.
Manila, Philippines — Abu Sayyaf, the Philippine militant group, has released a horrifying video in which Canadian John Ridsdel’s killer can be seen beheading him and a second video in which another Canadian, Robert Hall, pleads with the Canadian government to intervene and save him.
A young man with closely cropped hair wearing a black T-shirt and wielding a machete grabbed Ridsdel’s head by his hair in the first video and forced the 68-year-old disheveled, desperate-looking Canadian to the ground before murdering him as three masked men armed with assault rifles stood nearby.
“I recognize some people in such videos but he is not immediately identifiable to me. He might be to the authorities,” said Mark Singer, director of business intelligence for the Manila office of Pacific Strategies and Assessments Inc., which closely tracks Abu Sayyaf.