Philippine officials said they would assert their right...

Philippine officials said they would assert their right to prosecute any captured leaders of a Muslim guerrilla group linked to al Qaeda, despite US moves to indict the guerrillas for taking American hostages.
The Abu Sayyaf group executed one of four US hostages they seized between August 2000 and May 2001, two were rescued while the fourth was killed in a gunbattle between the group and local soldiers.None of the Abu Sayyaf leaders indicted in the United States and also wanted in the Philippines is in custody.
"If they will be arrested, we will insist that they will be tried first here before they will be turned over to America," state prosecutor Ricardo Cabaron told reporters.
Philippine armed forces chief General Roy Cimatu said the rebel leaders faced charges of kidnapping and murder before local courts, "so I think they will have to face their charges here."
"We have jurisdiction over them since the crimes were committed here," Cimatu added.US Deputy Attorney General Larry Thompson said in Washington a federal grand jury had handed up a five-count indictment against the guerrilla leaders alleged to have masterminded the May 2001 kidnapping of three Americans and 17 others in the Philippines.
If the defendants were caught, taken to the United States to stand trial and convicted, they could face the death penalty on four of the five counts, Justice Department officials said.