Fugitive linked to Al Qaeda is caught
Authorities recaptured a suspected member of a group linked to Al Qaeda who escaped from jail with a top terrorist operative nearly four years ago, police said.
Merang Abante, an alleged member of the extremist Abu Sayyaf group, was arrested in Isabela city, capital of the southern island province of Basilan, said authorities said.
Abante, fellow Abu Sayyaf member Abdulmukin Edris and Fathur Rohman Al Ghozi, a demolition expert from the Southeast Asian terrorist group Jemaah Islamiah, bolted from a maximum security cell at the national police headquarters in Manila in July 2003.
Edris and Al Ghozi were later killed in gunfights.
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