KOTA KINABALU: Freedom might have come at last to fish farm manager Chan Sai Chuin after nearly half a year in captivity, but he is still haunted by what he has gone through.
His 42-year-old wife Chin Pek Nyen said he would often get up in the middle of the night. “Maybe, he thinks he is still being held captive. He is still not himself and doesn’t talk as much yet. He needs time to recover,” she said in a telephone interview here yesterday.
Recalling the instant they saw each other for the first time after his release, Chin said it was the most emotional moment of her life.
“We just ran into each other’s arms and cried.
“Neither of us could say anything,” she said, adding that she was thankful that her 32-year-old husband was finally home safe.
The couple, who are now with families in Perak, are expected to return to their fish farm on Friday.
On June 16, Chan was kidnapped by Filipino gunmen during a raid at their farm in Kunak and later taken to the southern Philippines, where other hostages were also held.
Chan was released on Tuesday after negotiators apparently delivered the ransom money to the Abu Sayyaf group, led by the Sawadjan brothers.
Sources said the brothers, who were assimilated into another group under Alhasbi Misaya, guarded Chan in the Jolo islands since he was handed over by a cross-border kidnap-for-ransom gang.
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