KUALA LUMPUR, June 19 — The mystery of the RM12 million collected as ransom for four Sarawakians captured by the Abu Sayyaf is unlikely to surface anytime soon now that the hostages have returned home.

A relative of one of the four Sarawakians freed recently has declined to speak further on what happened to the money despite contradictory remarks from Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar and Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, urging Malaysians to give the matter a rest.

“I hope the public will not focus on the contradictory statements. I understand it is difficult for some quarters to speak out on the ransom payment because of the international pressures,” Datuk Lau Cheng Kiong, the uncle of Johnny Lau Jung Hien, 21, was quoted as saying by The Sunday Post today.

The Borneo paper reported Cheng Kiong as adding that all that mattered now was that the four have returned home.

Cheng Kiong had previously said the families of the four had mortgaged two houses and raised funds from the public amounting to RM12 million as ransom and passed the entire sum to the police Special Branch in Sandakan May 24.

The government insisted that no ransom was paid but Ahmad Zahid who oversees the police force as the home minister subsequently confirmed that the RM12 million was given by the Special Branch to unidentified Filipino welfare groups to secure the release of the Sarawakian hostages.

But the IGP denied the exchange happened as reported, saying the police had merely accompanied the family to the southern Philippines to hand over the money directly to an unknown “third party” who helped negotiate the foursome’s freedom.

Khalid also claimed ignorance when asked if the money was indeed for ransom.

“I don’t know. That is what they say,” he told a news conference in Putrajaya last Friday.

Brothers Wong Teck Kang, 31, and Teck Chii, 29, their cousin Johnny, and an unrelated friend Wong Hung Sing, 34, were abducted from a commercial barge, MV Massive 6, in the waters off Pulau Ligitan on April 1 while returning to Tawau, Sabah, after sending a cargo of wood to Manila.

Abu Sayyaf gunmen freed the four hostages on June 8.