An Abu Sayyaf member who escaped with Fathur Rohman al-GhoziÂ’s from Camp Crame in 2003 was recaptured in Basilan Friday, the military reported Saturday. Merang Abante was arrested by a team of police and marine operatives in Isabela City. Chief Supt. Joel Goltiao, police director of the Autonomous Region for Muslim Mindanao, said Abante has two arrest warrants issued by a Zamboanga City court for kidnapping. Goltiao said the arresting team was led by the Isabela City police chief, Senior Insp. Parson Asadil. Abante was brought to Zamboanga City for investigation and will be turned over to the Zamboanga Trial Court.
Al-Ghozi, a Jemaah Islamiah bomb expert, Abante and another Abu Sayyaf member, Abul Mukhim Edris, escaped from the detention center of the PNP Intelligence Group in Crame on July 14, 2003. Their escape was a major embarrassment to the country since it coincided with the state visit of Australian Prime Minister John Howard who had promised support to the countryÂ’s counterterrorism drive. Al-Ghozi is one of the primary suspects in the bombing of an LRT terminal on December 31, 2000, that killed at least 26 people and injured scores of others. Edris, said to be a former member of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, was killed a month after the escape as he tried to flee from government troops manning a checkpoint in Central Mindanao. Two months later, al-Ghozi was killed by policemen at a checkpoint in a remote town in Tigkawayan, North Cotabato.