Indonesian, two Filipinos get death penalty for Valentine's Day
Indonesian, two Filipinos get death penalty for Valentine's Day
bombing
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.