Wednesday, August 04, 2004 2 Rizal Day 'bombers' nabbed By Jonathan F. Fernandez
TWO suspected members of the extremist group Jemaah Islamiyah, the group responsible for the Light Rail Transit (LRT) bombing in Manila in December 2000 that killed at least 22 people, were arrested in Marawi City Monday night.
Arrested by joint elements of the Army intelligence and Marines were Mamasao Naga, alias Zainal Paks, and Abdul Pata, alias Mohamad Amir, both alleged JI members based in the country.
According to Lt. Commander Earl Evan Pabalan of Philippine Marines, the arrest of the two suspects was made on the strength of a warrant of arrest issued by the Manila Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 54.
Pabalan said Paks and Amir are now under the custody of the Army Intelligence and would be presented to public on Wednesday in Camp Aguinaldo, Quezon City.
They will be presented to the court after a undergoing tactical investigation, he added.
Military authorities said the duo was identified by JI bomb-maker Fathur Rohman al-Ghozi as the perpetrators of the bombing of the LRT train.
Al-Ghozi, an Indonesian JI member, was arrested in the Philippines in 2002 and convicted for possessing explosives. He had admitted that some of the explosives seized from him were used in the Rizal Day bombings.
Along with al-Ghozi, Muklis Yunos and several others, the two Filipino JI members are charged with multiple murder, multiple frustrated murder and multiple attempted murder.
Recovered from Paks and Amir were a Daewoo pistol and several documents detailing JI links in the Philippines.
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