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Friday, April 28, 2006
Abu Omar capture confirmed
POLICE confirmed that the Abu Sayyaf member arrested earlier was indeed Abu Omar, who is wanted for the mass kidnappings and serious illegal detention of Sipadan and Dos Palmas hostages.
Zamboanga City Police Director Francisco Cristobal said Omar carries several aliases like Al Sparle Amiruddin y Mohammad Nur but is more known as Abu Omar based on the list of wanted terrorist by the Department of Interior and Local Government.
Cristobal said Omar is facing 13 warrants of arrest issued by Basilan's
Regional Trial Court (RTC) in Isabela City.
Omar will be flown to Metro Manila, where he will be presented to higher authorities.
He said Abu Omar was involved in the 2000 Sipadan mass kidnapping of foreign nationals; in the 2001 Dos Palmas mass kidnapping in Palawan and in the kidnapping of American Christian Missionary Charles Walton in Sulu in the 90's.
Abu Omar, according to Cristobal, confessed during interrogation that the circulated death and bomb threat letters in the city recently ere carried out on orders of Abu Sayyaf chief Khadaffy Janjalani.
"He didn't deny. He said he only had knowledge of those letters, but that it was not his handiwork," Cristobal said.
The Abu Sayyaf suspect was cornered and pinned down at R.T. Lim Boulevard by combined military and police intelligence operatives on Sunday afternoon after a period of surveillance when an information came from a tipster that his presence was spotted here in the city.
The suspect, according to Cristobal, was adamant to reveal the whereabouts of their leader, Janjalani, during the interrogation after his capture.
Grace Burnham, the American kidnap victim, prominently mentioned Abu Omar in her written accounts of a book she authored.
Cristobal said Abu Omar knew of the August 10 twin bomb attacks in the city last year that resulted to 30 people wounded.
But, the city police director added, Omar was not reportedly involved in the attack. The Abu Omar death threat letters sparked fears among the populace here, particularly their reported targets in the assassination list, including top local officials and media practitioners.
(April 28, 2006 issue)
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