Ten former Muslim guerrillas were sentenced to death...

Ten former Muslim guerrillas were sentenced to death by a court in the Philippines for the abduction of five people in 1999.
Convicted by Quezon City Judge Jose Catral Mendoza to die by lethal injection were Tahir Alonto, the gang's leader, and gang members Rasul Engad, Mutalib Ismael, Arnel Abdullah Blaim, Mondot Masalon, Mario Masalon, Kamad Udasan, Jun Emba, Dario Adoy and Alex Pandita.
However, only three of the kidnappers of the so-called "Pentagon" kidnap gang, composed mostly of renegade members of the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), were in detention.
The rest, including gang leader Tahir Alonto, were convicted in absentia, the court said.
"After an assiduous assessment of the evidentiary records, the court has reached the determination that the respective persons charged are guilty beyond reasonable doubt," Mendoza said in his 20-page decision.
"In the kidnapping for ransom case, the court has no recourse but to impose the mandatory penalty of death," he added. Alonto, who headed the Pentagon kidnap gang operating in the southern Philippines, and his men were charged with the 1999 kidnapping of a doctor, his brother and three of their companions.
Two of the victims were killed 17 days after the kidnapping, while the rest were subsequently rescued by the military.
Alonto had earlier been arrested, but in 2000, about 1,000 armed MILF guerrillas stormed the city jail where he was being kept in General Santos city and freed him along with about 70 other inmates.