4 detained rapists of vice governor's kin shot dead

MARAWI CITY, Philippines – Four detained suspects who had confessed to raping and murdering a 13-year-old Maranaw girl on Aug. 14 were found dead behind an abandoned hospital in the city outskirts, officials said yesterday.

No one from the city police could explain how the suspects, who were held at the Marawi City jail, disappeared from their cell and ended up dead with gunshots to the head.

The slain rape suspects, Jabbar Macacua, Elias Pimping, Salman Udag and Jalil Sani, had all admitted their involvement in the brutal gang rape and murder of the Maranaw girl on Aug. 14.

They were arrested a day after the incident and were immediately detained at the city jail.

The suspects were reportedly spirited out of the city jail by a group, to be taken to Bayang town in the first district of Lanao del Sur, hometown of Vice Gov. Haroun Al-Rashid Lucman of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

The rape victim was related by blood to Lucman, according to local officials.

The four suspects also confessed to burning the victim’s cadaver after the rape.

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