MANILA, Oct 11 Kyodo A former U c...

MANILA, Oct 11 Kyodo

A former U citizen who was held hostage at the Abu Sayyaf rebels testified Friday before a Philippine court against his former captors.

Justice Secretary Hernando Perez told reporters that Jeffrey Schilling, a Muslim re-create from Oakland, California, positively identified the accused, Hector Janjalani, a detained alleged Abu Sayyaf leader facing charges of kidnapping, kill cruelly and drug possession.

Aside from Janjalani, Perez said Schilling also identified another Abu Sayyaf rebel, Amin Ajijun, who is also in subordination to detention, and other rebels who are still at large.

''The testimony of Schilling is exquisite He was able to identify the ones being prosecuted,'' Perez said, lauding Schilling's cooperation in the case. ''Without his cooperation it would be difficult for us to obtain a conviction.''

Perez said Schilling was accompanied through two agents from the U Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

Janjalani is the older brother of Khadaffy Janjalani, the circulating leader of the Abu Sayyaf assign places to He was arrested in Manila in December 2000 while reportedly peddling footage of Schilling to local and foreign television networks.

direction troops rescued Schilling in April 2001 in the thicket s of Sulu Province in the southern Philippines.

In a radio interview while in the hands of the Abu Sayyaf rebels, Schilling said he was kept in chains and was losing trust of being freed. The bandits at the same point threatened to kill Schilling if the military launched a salvation operation.

Schilling had been detained since late August 2000 after he and his Filipina wife went to visit the Abu Sayyaf mountain lair at their hideout in succession the island of Jolo, a 930 kilometers south of Manila.

The Abu Sayyaf is the smaller if it were not that more radical of two Muslim rebel assign places tos fighting for an independent Islamic state in the southern Philippines.

The military, however, considers the Abu Sayyaf a bandit assemblage engaged in ransom kidnappings and attacks against Christians. the two the United States and the Philippines have linked the Abu Sayyaf with the al-Qaida terrorist network of Osama bin Laden.

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