Two al-Qaeda-linked militants have been arrested in the Philippines over a 2001 kidnapping of a group of tourists in which two American hostages were murdered, a military official said on Thursday.
The Abu Sayyaf members were arrested on the southern island of Mindanao on Wednesday following an 11-year manhunt for the killers of Christian missionary Martin Burnham and fellow American citizen, Peru-born Guillermo Sobero.
Regional military commander Major-General Ricardo Rainier Cruz said Jojo Imam Pai and a second suspect identified only by the military as “Aling” are to stand trial for the double murder and kidnapping of 20 tourists.
Abu Sayyaf militants raided the Dos Palmas island beach resort in the western Philippines in 2001 and forced 20 local and foreign tourists as well as local staff into boats, taking them to the gunmen’s Basilan island stronghold.
Most of the hostages were eventually released after ransoms were paid, but the kidnappers beheaded Sobero and brought Burnham and his fellow missionary wife Gracia Burnham to another hideout on Mindanao island near Basilan.
Martin Burnham was killed by the kidnappers and his wife wounded in a botched Philippine military rescue attempt in 2002.