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Tuesday, July 15, 2003
Terrorist, 2 others bolt Crame jail; Glo furious
MANILA -- A top bomb-maker and Indonesian pointman for the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) terrorist network escaped from prison Monday, after just serving one year of a 17-year jail term for his role in procuring explosives to bomb targets in Singapore.
Fathur Rohman Al-Ghozi bolted from a high-security jail at the PNP headquarters with two Abu Sayyaf terrorists, police said. He is one of the most senior JI operatives ever to be caught.
President Arroyo, who hosted Australian Prime Minister John Howard to discuss anti-terror initiatives earlier Monday, immediately sacked Al-Ghozi’s custodians.
Police Chief Supt. Jesus Verzosa, who heads the national police intelligence group that had custody of Al-Ghozi, voluntarily resigned.
Arroyo ordered diplomats, the justice department and all intelligence agencies to “contact their Indonesian counterparts for the purpose of coordinating efforts to recapture” the fugitives, Presidential Spokesman Ignacio Bunye said.
“This is an incident that is very unfortunate and the President intends to get to the bottom of this,” Bunye said.
Interior Secretary Jose Lina said Arroyo was “really very angry” and warned that the incident could lead to an overhaul in the police ranks.
The circumstances surrounding the escape were unclear, but a police source said money could have been involved. He did not elaborate. Police also believed the escape took place between 3 a.m. to 6 a.m.
No arraignment
Government lawyers said they would have to temporarily freeze the prosecution of the case against Al-Ghozi for the December 2000 bombing of the Manila light rail system that killed 22 persons.
Al-Ghozi was sentenced to 17 years in prison last year for another charge. His arrest led to the recovery of a huge cache of explosives that he said was to be used by the JI in attacks in Asia.
State Prosecutor Peter Ong told reporters that unless Al-Ghozi "can be captured again, he cannot be arraigned on July 21."
Al-Ghozi has given a deposition to prosecutors that JI leader Hambali, born Riduan Isamuddin, and Faiz Abubakar Bafana, funded the attack on the train station in Manila.
Intelligence operatives in the region say Hambali is believed to be the operations chief of the JI. He remains at large while Bafana has been detained in Singapore.
Al-Ghozi was to be arraigned for the 2000 bombing at a Manila court next week.
The Indonesian had made a sworn statement saying he carried out the bombing with a Filipino Muslim militant, who last week pleaded guilty to the charge.
Dangerous people
The military, meanwhile, said a massive military manhunt was launched, with troops in the south told be on heightened alert to intercept Al-Ghozi, if he tried to make contact with Filipino Muslim separatists there.
“They are dangerous people,” PNP Chief Hermogenes Ebdane said of Al-Ghozi and his companions. “If you have a gun and you see him (Al-Ghozi) in public, shoot him.”
Al-Ghozi’s escape raised the terrorism threat across the region, said one international terrorism expert.
Going by the nom de guerre “Randy Ali” and adept at languages, wire transfers and handling explosives, Al-Ghozi is a key figure in the Southeast Asian terror network.
“It is a major breach of security because he was the most important JI member currently in custody,” Singapore-based Rohan Gunaratna, author of Inside Al-Qaeda: Global Network of Terror, said.
“He is the most experienced, the best trained and the most well-motivated,” added Gunaratna, warning that Al-Ghozi is capable of quickly launching a terrorist attack. (AFP/Sunnex)
(July 15, 2003 issue)
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