Amanda Lindhout reveals it was Calgary Flames co-owner who helped pay ransom to free her

A Calgary businessman and philanthropist paid roughly $750,000 to help free kidnapped journalist Amanda Lindhout in Somalia.

Allan Markin, a co-owner of the Calgary Flames, didn’t know Lindhout when she was taken hostage in 2008.

But the 73-year-old believes in helping people.

“I was just glad that she survived,” he told The Canadian Press on Tuesday.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "I was just glad that she survived," he told <em>The Canadian Press</em> on Tuesday.

“I think she’s an honourable person and full of integrity … she’s an inspiration for hope for a lot of people.”

Lindhout and Markin both spoke at a fundraiser last weekend for the Mustard Seed charity, and she surprised Markin by divulging to the crowd that he had saved her life.

Lindhout had not publicly revealed before who paid the ransom for her release.

She was working as a freelance journalist near Mogadishu when she and an Australian photographer, Nigel Brennan, were taken by armed men.

They were freed after being held hostage for 15 months.

In her best-selling book A House in the Sky, co-authored by Sara Corbett, Lindhout revealed $1.2 million was spent to free her and Brennan.

The pair’s families, after giving up on help from the Canadian and Australian governments, co-ordinated their release. About $600,000 went to the kidnappers as ransom and the rest went to other costs, including a $2,000 per day fee for a private hostage negotiator.

READ MORE: Amanda Lindhout recounts horrors of captivity: – ‘I sometimes wake up screaming’

Watch below: Some videos from Global News’ coverage of the kidnapping of Amanda Lindhout.

1:15 Sentencing for Amanda Lindhout’s kidnapper sends ‘strong message’ internationally

• Sentencing for Amanda Lindhout’s kidnapper sends ‘strong message’ internationally
• Lindhout recalls trauma at kidnapper’s sentencing
• Nigel Brennan reacts to being called ‘heroic’ in judgement of Amanda Lindhout kidnapping case
• Amanda Lindhout kidnapping verdict
• Nigel Brennan says he was ‘never going to leave’ Amanda Lindhout even if he was given opportunity
• Crown says guilty verdict in Amanda Lindhout kidnapping case ‘sends a message’
• Amanda Lindhout’s kidnapper found guilty of hostage-taking
• Crown says ‘justice served’ with guilty verdict in Amanda Lindhout kidnapping case
• Amanda Lindhout trial hears testimony about torture
• Former Somali hostage Nigel Brennan says he doesn’t want life in prison for his tormentor
• Kidnapped in Somalia

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Markin, who is also a former chairman of Canadian Natural Resources Limited and founder of the non-profit Pure North health company, said fellow business leader Steve Allan contacted him on behalf of a group raising funds for Lindhout’s release. And he agreed to help.

After Lindhout returned to Canada, Markin said he also helped pay for her to complete a diploma in international studies at St. Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia.

He was astonished that she decided to finally make his donation public, he said.

“It took me a little bit when she first said it but then I said, ‘Well, what the heck. What’s wrong with that.”’

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "It took me a little bit when she first said it but then I said, 'Well, what the heck. What's wrong with that."'

Lindhout tearfully testified about the kidnapping in 2017 at the trial of one of the men involved. Undercover RCMP officers had lured Ali Omar Ader to Canada with a ruse about a book deal. He was convicted and sentenced to 15 years.

READ MORE: Amanda Lindhout kidnapper gets 15 years in prison