Indonesian, two Filipinos get death penalty for February blast
Indonesian, two Filipinos get death penalty for February blast
Agence France-Presse, Manila
A Philippine court sentenced on Friday an Indonesian Islamic militant and two Filipinos to death for the Valentines' Day bombing of a bus in Manila that killed four people.
Rohmat Abdurrahim, an Indonesian described as a senior leader of the Jamaah Islamiyah (JI) group, and Filipinos Gamal Baharan and Angelo Trinidad were handed the death penalty by regional trial court judge Marissa Guillen.
All three were convicted of the Feb. 14 bombing of a bus in Manila's Makati financial district that killed four people and injured about 60 others.
The prosecutor in the case meanwhile warned that local Muslim militants had been planning to stage bombings in Manila and its suburbs in retaliation for the sentencing.
The court said Baharan was a member of the Abu Sayyaf, listed by the U.S. State Department as a "foreign terrorist organization" based in the southern Philippines.
Trinidad, alias Abu Khalil, is a member of the Rajah Solaiman group of Islamic converts that is allied to the Abu Sayyaf, court officials said.
The three were convicted largely on the basis of the testimony of Abu Sayyaf member Gappal Bana, widely known as "Boy Negro", who was arrested in March and turned state witness against the group.
Their bombing of the bus was part of a spate of bomb attacks by the Abu Sayyaf in different parts of the Philippines on Valentine's Day which claimed almost a dozen lives.
Defense lawyer Erwin Dimayacyac said they would appeal.
President Gloria Arroyo's spokesman Ignacio Bunye hailed the verdict as "another victory in our relentless fight against terrorism."
State prosecutor Emmanuel Velasco meanwhile warned there were intelligence reports that the Abu Sayyaf "plan to bomb Metropolitan Manila in retaliation for whatever decision is handed out."
He also said the government would also soon charge nine suspected Islamic militants, arrested in the southern Philippines earlier this week, for alleged involvement in the Valentine's Day bombings as well.
This would include Hilarion del Rosario, alias Ahmad Santos, the founder of the Rajah Solaiman movement who was arrested with his wife and seven others in the southern city of Zamboanga earlier this week.
"Definitely, we have witnesses. We can make a connection," between the three newly-convicted men and the group led by Santos," Velasco said.
Gappal Bana, the Abu Sayyaf member who testified against the three, witnessed the sentencing. He later told reporters he turned state witness because "my conscience bothered me after so many innocent people were killed."
The Abu Sayyaf is a local Muslim armed group blamed for the worst terror attacks in the Philippines. Security officials say it has ties to both the al-Qaeda and Jamaah Islamiyah extremist networks.
The Rajah Solaiman movement is composed of new converts to Islam that the Abu Sayyaf has been using to carry out bombings and other attacks because they can blend into the largely- Christian communities of the Philippines.