Semporna Kidnap: Msian police reportedly obtained recording of conversation with gunmen

Hsu Li Min's funeral and cremation

TAIPEI - Malaysian police have obtained a recording of a conversation with gunmen responsible for the Nov. 15 abduction of a Taiwanese woman off the east coast of Sabah, according to Malaysia's English-language daily The Star.

"We are quite sure that she is safe," Inspector-General of Police Kalid Abu Bakar said Thursday over the abduction of Taiwanese citizen Chang An-wei, the tabloid reported.

"Our officers are in Manila to discuss matters with the Philippine authorities. We have also involved the Taiwan representative in the Philippines," he was quoted as saying.

Taiwan's Interior Minister Lee Hong-yuan disclosed earlier this week that Chang was brought to the Philippines unharmed after gunman shot her husband dead and took her away when the couple was vacationing on Pom Pom Island.

Lee also revealed that a phone call believed to be from her captors mentioned ransom payment.

It was not clear if that was related to the recording that The Star reported on.

Sabah Police Commissioner Hamza Taib said that Malaysian police were not aware of the matter because they had not maintained communication with the gunmen, according to a separate report in The Star.

Hamza said he had met with the woman's brother, Chang Ta-kung, and assured him that Malaysian law enforcement is doing all it can to help locate her.

"I also urged him (Chang Ta-kung) to contact Taiwan police if there was any communication from the abductors so our counterparts there can alert us," he was quoted by the paper as saying.

The gunmen are widely believed to have come from the Philippines and to have taken Chang An-wei back there as a hostage.

The Star reported that they likely took her to the Philippine island of Tawi Tawi and then to Jolo Island, often called the country's kidnapping capital.

By Y.F. Low