'Agus linked to Jakarta and Manila blasts'

'Agus linked to Jakarta and Manila blasts'

Agence France-Presse, Manila

Philippine authorities said Friday they had received reliable
reports that an Indonesian detained since March was involved in
deadly bomb blasts in Manila and Jakarta.

Justice Undersecretary Jose Calida said the reports, relayed
to them by undisclosed international contacts, implicated Agus
Dwikarna, a suspected Islamic militant, in the two bombings.

More than a dozen people were killed in the Manila attack when
a bomb detonated on a train in December 2000.

The Jakarta blast occurred outside the Philippine embassy in
August 2000, killing two people and injuring 20 others.

"We received information that he was a participant in the
planning of the (railway) bombing and the bombing of the
residence of Philippine ambassador to Indonesia Leonides Caday.
We are following up this lead," Calida said.

He said the original source for the information was one of 13
men arrested in Singapore in December for allegedly planning
attacks on US targets as part of a plot by the al-Qaeda network
of suspected terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden.

The arrested members are accused of belonging to the Islamic
militant Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) group, which is part of the
Southeast Asian network of al-Qaeda.

Philippine police have previously accused Dwikarna of
belonging to JI.

Calida said if they can get proof of the allegations, they
will charge Dwikarna with arson and murder.

He did not specify who relayed the information from the
arrested JI member in Singapore.

Dwikarna and two other Indonesians were arrested at Manila
airport on March 13 allegedly after explosives were found in the
luggage of one of them.

However the two others were freed in April because there was
insufficient evidence to hold them.

Dwikarna is a coordinator for Laskar Jundullah, a militant
Muslim group advocating the imposition of Islamic sharia law in
Indonesia.

Another Indonesian, Fathur Rohman Al-Ghozi, 30, was sentenced
to 12 years in prison in the Philippines in April for illegal
possession of explosives.

Philippine authorities have said al-Ghozi was an explosives
expert for the Jemaah Islamiyah extremist group and that he was
involved in the December 2000 bomb blasts in Manila.

They said he planned similar attacks against US targets in
Singapore and that he was linked to Dwikarna and the two other
Indonesians.