Agus Dwikarna's lawyers seek retrial

Agus Dwikarna's lawyers seek retrial

Lawyers for an Indonesian man convicted of illegal explosives
possession asked the Philippine Supreme Court on Monday to give
him more time to file a petition for a retrial.

Agus Dwikarna's lawyers asked the court to give him up to Nov.
30 to file the petition to allow them to present new evidence
they claim would show that police planted explosives in his
luggage.

Dwikarna was convicted by a suburban Pasay city court in July
of carrying C-4 plastic explosives and bomb parts at the Ninoy
Aquino International Airport as he and two other Indonesians were
leaving Manila for Bangkok in March.

He was sentenced to 17 years in prison. The other Indonesians
were later freed and allowed to return home.

Dwikarna's lawyers appealed his conviction, but the Pasay
court denied the appeal Oct. 16, giving them up to the end of
October to appeal to the Supreme Court.

Instead, his lawyers have decided to file a petition for
retrial before the Supreme Court after they acquired new evidence
favoring Dwikarna, said one of the attorneys, Felipe Arcilla.
Arcilla said among the new evidence is testimony from a Thai
national and one of the two Indonesians with Dwikarna at the
airport indicating the explosives were planted by police.

Police officials allege Dwikarna is a member of Jamaah
Islamiyah, a Southeast Asian-based Islamic militant group with
suspected links to al-Qaida. Singapore has said the group planned
to attack Western targets in the city-state earlier this year.

The group is also suspected of orchestrating the bombings that
killed nearly 200 people on Indonesia's tourist island of Bali
this month.

After the Bali attack, U.S. officials included it on a list of
foreign terrorist groups, outlawing any kind of support and
banning the entry of members to the United States.

The United Nations also included Jamaah Islamiyah on a list of
al-Qaeda allies last Friday. Any person or group on the list is
subject to international sanctions. Nations are required to
freeze their assets, prevent their movements and block any
attempts to sell or transfer arms to them. --AP