Fathur pleads guilty, gets 12 years in jail
Fathur pleads guilty, gets 12 years in jail
Agencies, General Santos/Jakarta
An Indonesian national who allegedly planned a series of bombings that killed 22 people in Manila in 2000 pleaded guilty Thursday to illegal possession of explosives and was sentenced to between 10 and 12 years in prison.
Fathur Rohman al-Ghozi, 30, entered the plea in the southern Philippine city of General Santos, where the explosives were found earlier this year, in the hope of getting a lighter sentence.
"He thought it best for him to plead guilty," Fathur's lawyer Confesor Sansalo told AFP.
Three Filipino men who are facing the same charges were given an extra week to consider their pleas.
Judge Marivic Daray sentenced him to a 10 to 12 year term in prison and slapped him with a fine of 200,000 pesos (US$3,920). Daray would decide on the exact prison term at a later date, court officials said.
The maximum sentence under the explosives-possession charges is 20 years in jail.
Justice Department undersecretary Manuel Teehankee said prosecutors made no deal with Fathur, saying the defendant made the decision, after conferring with his father, the Indonesian Embassy and his attorney, because "the evidence was quite strong."
Fathur was arrested in Manila's working-class Quiapo district in January on a tip from Singapore police.
He provided information that led to the discovery of more than a ton of TNT buried in a backyard in General Santos, about 1,000 kilometers southeast of Manila, police officials said. Also found were 300 detonators, six 400-meter rolls of detonating cord and 17 M-16 assault rifles.
Fathur later told police that he planned the deadly Manila bombings on Dec. 30, 2000, with the help of local and foreign Muslim extremists. The five blasts, which also injured more than 120 people, struck a train, a bus, an abandoned gasoline station, an airport parking area and a park.
In an affidavit, Fathur said he suggested the bombings to his companions as retaliation for a military offensive ordered by then president Joseph Estrada that led to the capture of many camps of the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front in the southern Philippines in 2000.
He said he plotted the bombings with Hadji Onos, also known as Muklis, whom he identified as a Filipino belonging to the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, a number of Filipino Muslims, Riduan Isamuddin from Indonesia and a man named Fais from Malaysia.
Philippine authorities have said Fathur was an explosives expert for the Jemaah Islamiyah extremist group, the regional allies of al-Qaeda led by chief terror suspect Osama bin Laden.
Fathur faces other charges that prosecutors in Manila said may include multiple counts of murder for the Manila bombings, and was to be arraigned Friday in nearby Zamboanga for alleged passport law violations.
Meanwhile, Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirayuda said here on Thursday that the Philippine government decided to free two of the three Indonesian nationals detained since March 13 for illegal possession of explosives materials.
The charges against Tamsil Linrung and Abdul Jamal Balfas have been dismissed due to lack of evidence, while Agus Dwikarna is to undergo further questioning.
"Tamsil and Belfas will be released today as Filipino investigators concluded there isn't sufficient evidence found to process the two Indonesian nationals in court," Hassan said on Thursday.
However, as of late Thursday evening, the two had not yet been released.
Hassan refused to elaborate on Agus' further detainment.
"There is still a possibility that he (Agus) would also be freed... his detention is probably due to further investigation," he said.
Tamsil Linrung, Agus Dwikarna and Abdul Jamal Balfas were apprehended at the Ninoy Aquino airport on March 13 for immigration violations and for allegedly carrying bomb-making material.
Later, the immigration violation charge was dismissed and the three faced only illegal possession of explosives.
Chief of the South Sulawesi committee for the Preparation of the Enforcement of Islamic Sharia (KPPSI) Abraham Samad accused the Indonesian government on Thursday of deliberately allowing the Filipinos to keep Agus in jail.
"It seems that the government wants Agus to remain in jail," Abraham Samad told the Post in Makassar.
"Maybe Agus is seen as a radical Islamist... since he is active in several hardline Islamic groups. In any case, that should not be the reason for him to be jailed, since those groups are allowed to exist in Indonesia."