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AN alleged Abu Sayyaf leader reportedly died while in
the custody of naval personnel in Zamboanga City, where he was
brought for interrogation, a military officer said Saturday.
The officer, who requested not to
be named, said Tandico Saddae reportedly succumbed in a hospital in
Zamboanga, where he was brought after complaining of chest pains
Friday night.
Saddae reportedly tried to escape
by jumping from a Navy ship while being brought to Zamboanga from
Tawi-Tawi, where he was arrested.
“He jumped after asking his
guard to [untie] him so could pray. He tried to escape his
custodians but was caught again,” the officer said.
Reporters tried to get the side
of the Navy, but its spokesman, Cmdr. Giovanni Carlo Bacordo, was
attending a Toast Master Speech Contest.
Saddae, who also uses the aliases
Ustadz Tandoco and Anwar Saddae, was captured by a police and
military team in a market place in Bongao, Tawi-Tawi.
Initial reports reaching Camp
Crame said Saddae took part in the abduction of 21 tourists and
resort workers in a resort in Sipadan, Malaysia, in April 2000.
A senior police official
confirmed Saddae’s arrest, but declined to make any comment,
saying the Navy is the primary agency in the operation that captured
Saddae.
Government troops have been
engaged in a two-pronged offensive against the Abu Sayyaf and a
faction of the Moro National Liberation Front in Jolo.
--Anthony Vargas and AFP
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