Hostage escapee and Malaysian plantation manager Tung Wei Jie sits in a wheelchair inside a Jolo hospital Tuesday (August 6th). Wei Jie escaped from Philippine Muslim extremists who held him captive for nine months. [AFP]

ZAMBOANGA, Philippines – A Malaysian held hostage by Muslim extremists for the past nine months escaped Tuesday (August 6th), AFP reported. But his cousin, who was kidnapped with him, died in captivity.

A policeman found Tung Wei Jie wandering on the southern island of Jolo, where he was taken after being abducted by alleged Abu Sayyaf militants from Sabah, Malaysia, in mid-November.

"He informed the policeman that he was kidnapped along with a cousin whom he identified as Fei, but only he escaped from his captors. Fei had died in captivity from illness," said Jose Bayani Gucela, police deputy director for the region.

Police said the cousins were managers of a palm oil plantation when they were kidnapped in Sabah's Lahad Datu district on November 13th