Further probe into Indonesian terror suspects ordered

Agencies, Manila/Jakarta

A Philippine court on Wednesday ordered government prosecutors to conduct further investigations into a suspected terrorism case involving three Indonesians arrested at a Manila airport last March.

Tamsil Linrung, Agus Dwikarna and Abdul Jamal Balfas were scheduled to be arraigned in open court on Wednesday on charges of illegal possession of explosives which carries a maximum penalty of up to 14 years' imprisonment.

Regional trial court Judge Henrick Gingoyon granted a request by the suspects on Wednesday allowing them to submit affidavits to prove their innocence, court clerk Joy Rillera said.

"The court directed the city prosecutor's office to conduct a preliminary investigation and come up with a report within 60 days before we can proceed with the case," Rillera told AFP.

The three argued that they were not given the chance to file their counter-affidavits when they were apprehended on March 13 after police said they found bomb making materials in their luggage, Rillera said.

Intelligence officials in Manila said that the three had met with associates of another Indonesian suspect, Fathur Rohman al- Ghozi, who was arrested in January, and has since admitted to plotting a string of deadly bomb attacks in Manila in 2000.

Al-Ghozi is an explosives expert with the Jemaah Islamiyah Islamic movement, which officials say is the Southeast Asian wing of the Saudi militant Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network.

One of the suspects, a businessman named Linrung, said earlier that he saw police plant bomb-making materials and claims that he was framed in order to discredit Indonesian presidential hopeful Amien Rais.

Linrung was formerly treasurer of Amien's National Mandate Party (PAN). Amien on Tuesday accused Philippine police of engineering the arrest of the three.

In response, Philippine police spokesman senior superintendent Leonardo Espina said: "If there are any questions that need to be addressed by the Philippine authorities, protocol requires that they be channeled through the Indonesian embassy."

Espina described claims that the charges against the trio were fabricated as the "normal accusations of defendants."

Justice department undersecretary Manuel Teehankee said the suspects would be charged only if there was sufficient evidence against them.

"The safeguard in the process is the fact that the charges against the Indonesians are subject to preliminary investigations with the benefit of counsel."

In Jakarta, Vice President Hamzah Haz dismissed on Wednesday speculation that the government had ordered Philippine authorities to arrest the three Indonesians.

"I think there was no engineering in the arrest. Let's wait for the trial process," Hamzah said.

Coordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono concurred with Hamzah, saying that he would wait for further evidence of such speculations.

"I assure that at the government level there was no engineering or order of arrest in Manila. It is unethical," Susilo said after delivering a keynote speech at a seminar on regional autonomy here on Wednesday.

Hamzah and Susilo were commenting on a remark made by former intelligence chief Z.A. Maulani on Tuesday that the arrest of Tamsil, Agus, and Abdul Jamal was upon the request of Jakarta.

Maulani said his remark was based on a report from security officials in the Philippines.

"If there is evidence (of engineering), we will be open (to discussion). I don't want to make polemics, but I say that there is no engineering," Susilo asserted.

Hamzah said sharing ideas and information between intelligence agencies was a common practice, but fell short of saying that the arrest of the three Indonesians was based on intelligence reports supplied by Indonesia's intelligence agency.