Posted on 07/27/2010 4:46:14 AM PDT by csvset
ZAMBOANGA- Philippine police said Monday they have captured a member of the Al Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf group who joined in the abduction and beheading of Christian workers when he was 14.
The suspect, Jirome Mustakin, now 22, was arrested Sunday in the southern port city of Zamboanga as he waited to board a ferry heading across the sea border to Sabah in Malaysia, police said.
"Mustakin was positively identified by a witness as one of those who were involved in the kidnapping," city police chief Senior Superintendent Edwin de Ocampo told reporters.
He said Mustakin was 14 when he joined an Abu Sayyaf unit in kidnapping six local members of the Jehovah's Witness sect on nearby Jolo Island in 2002.
Two of the six captives were beheaded and their heads dumped in the town plaza. The four others were freed weeks later, allegedly after ransom payments, police said.
After the kidnappings, police offered a bounty of 150,000 pesos (3,260 dollars) for Mustakin's arrest.
De Ocampo said the arrest warrant against Mustakin detailed six counts of kidnapping and two counts of murder.
The Abu Sayyaf is a small group of Islamic militants on the US government's list of terrorist organisations, which has conducted a series of kidnappings of both locals and foreigners in the Philippines.
In one of their highest-profile kidnappings, the group seized three American and 17 local tourists from a beach resort on Palawan Island southwest of Manila in 2001.
They beheaded one of the Americans, and another was killed during a rescue attempt a year after the kidnapping. The third American was freed in the rescue effort.
The Abu Sayyaf is also blamed for the country's worst terrorist attacks, including a ferry bombing that left over 100 dead on Manila Bay in 2004.
They captured one of the animals that chopped off the heads of two Jehovah’s Witnesses in 2002.
Little Jirome needs to have something cut off in retaliation.
Thank you for the ping csvset.
I appreciate it.
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http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/abusayaff/index
http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/jolo/index
PI Ping
Thanx Bob ... I almost didn’t go to meet “mom and dad” in Mindanao because I was unsure of abu sayeff.
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