|
|
Monday, August 16, 2004
Two suspected JI bombers arraigned (3:30 pm)
MANILA -- Two alleged Filipino members of an Al Qaeda-linked militant organization appeared in court Monday to hear charges of multiple murder for a deadly December 2000 bombing attack on the Philippines' overhead railway system.
Suspected Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) members Mamasao Naga and Abdul Patak Faute refused to enter a plea on their arraignment. The Manila regional trial court automatically entered "not guilty" pleas for both.
The two were arrested in the southern city of Marawi earlier this month.
The government blamed them for the simultaneous bombings of the Manila light rail system and a passenger bus on December 30, 2000 that left more than 20 people dead in the worst known terrorist attack in the Philippines.
Court officials said state prosecutors will start introducing evidence against the two on September 13.
Southeast Asian governments allege the JI, blamed for the Bali bomb attacks that killed 202 people in Indonesia in 2002, has close ties with the Al-Qaeda network behind the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States.
The military has said some 25 foreign JI members are in hiding with local Muslim separatist guerrillas in the south but there is no estimate on how many local recruits they have. AFP
|
|
|
|
