Renegade governor deported to Philippines

The Philippine government is looking to charge Misuari with rebellion

MANILA, Philippines (CNN) -- Renegade Muslim governor Nur Misuari has been deported back to the Philippines to face rebellion charges after being detained in Malaysia for more than a month.

Misuari, a former governor of Mindanao in the southern Philippines, was arrested in Malaysia in November for illegal entry after he fled following a short-lived rebellion in the Muslim autonomous region.

A Philippine government spokesman and a spokesman for President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo said the government plans to file rebellion charges against Misuari.

A conviction of rebellion carries a minimum 20-year sentence and maximum of 40 years. After arriving in the Philippines on Monday, he will be held pending trial, most likely at the Fort Santo Domingo military camp about 90 km (56 miles) south of Manila.

Misuari is believed to behind an attack launched by hundreds of his supporters on an army base in the southern island of Jolo in November. More than 100 people died in the fighting.

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Government officials said that Musauri wanted the attacks to derail elections to choose his successor as chairman to the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) -- an area comprising five Muslim majority provinces.

Elections were held despite the uprising and a new leader Parouk Hussin formally took office on Saturday.

Misuari became governor under a 1996 peace agreement to end decades of civil war between his Muslim separatist Moro National Liberation Front and the government of the Philippines, a predominantly Roman Catholic country.

But Misuari reneged on the peace deal last year following allegations from the government that he was corrupt.

The government also set elections for a new ARMM governor and supported a rival for the post.

-- Journalist Cecilia Lazaro contributed to this report