August 14, 2004, Manila Bulletin, 17 Abu Sayyaf Members Sentenced to Death in South,

August 14, 2004, Manila Bulletin, 17 Abu Sayyaf Members Sentenced to Death in South, 

ISABELA, Basilan (AFP) Seventeen members of an extremist group linked to Al-Qaeda were sentenced to death on Friday by a Philippine court for kidnap and murder.

The defendants, including four who were tried in absentia after a prison breakout in April, are found to be members of the Abu Sayyaf group.

They each received three death sentences plus life imprisonment for the murders and abductions in the southern island of Basilan in 2001.

It was the first mass conviction of members of the Abu Sayyaf, self-styled Muslim militants who have been kidnapping and killing Christians and foreigners in the southern Philippines for a decade.

Some of the convicted men sobbed when the verdict was read out at the tightly-guarded court house in the capital of Basilan island while crowds outside the building shouted curses at the defendants.

About 200 police and soldiers, backed by two armored cars, secured the entire street where the court house was situated.

The group, followers of Abu Sayyaf leader Khadaffy Janjalani, seized three Americans and a group of Filipino tourists and resort workers from the western island of Palawan and took them to Basilan in May 2001.

They then seized more Filipino hostages in Basilan, killing several of them when found they could not pay the ransom.

Many Filipino hostages were recovered or freed after ransoms were paid. However, an American hostage, Peruvian-born Guillermo Sobero, was beheaded while another, missionary Martin Burnham, was killed when troops stormed the Abu Sayyaf camp in June 2002.

Burnhams wife Gracia was recovered alive and last month returned to the Philippines to testify against other accused Abu Sayyaf members in a separate trial in Manila.

The convictions only involved murders and kidnappings of Filipinos committed on Basilan and the Abu Sayyaf members will face other charges for the deaths of Sobero and Martin Burnham, court officials said.

The Abu Sayyaf have been linked by both the US and Philippine governments to Osama bin Ladens Al-Qaeda network.

17 kidnappers killed

MANILA (PNA) Seventeen members of the notorious Pentagon kidnap for ransom gang were killed when government forces pounded a known rebel lair in southern Philippines on Friday morning, officials said.

Maj. Gen. Raul Relano, commander of the Army 6th Infantry Division, said that based on field reports, the kidnappers were slain when troops and policemen assaulted Midpakan village in Sultan Kudarats Pendatun town in Maguindanao.

There were no reported casualties among the government forces after the hour-long clash.

"We couldn't penetrate the whole area so we used MG520 attack helicopters for air power," Relano said.

The Liguasan marsh is a known enclave of the secessionist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) which is holding peace negotiations with the government.

But Southern Command chief Maj. Gen. Generoso Senga stressed that the operation was meant against the Pentagon gang headed by Tahir Alonto and not the MILF.

"We are abiding with the ceasefire agreement," he said.

Alonto heads the Pentagon gang which is listed by the United States as a foreign terrorist organization following its abduction of locals and foreigners in central Mindanao.

Among the groups victims were Italian priest Guieseppe Pierantoni, five Chinese engineers and a South Korean treasure hunter, all in 2001.

Pierantoni and the South Korean hunter were released upon payment of ransom while two of the Chinese engineers were killed during rescue operations.