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."