JI bomb maker Al-Ghozi to be buried back in Indonesia
Fabiola Desy Unidjaja and I.D. Nugroho, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta/Madiun, East Java
The Philippine government has approved the request to send the corpse of terrorist suspect Fathur Rohman al-Ghozi back to Indonesia for burial and promised to finance the process.
Spokesman for the Indonesian foreign ministry Marty Natalegawa said on Tuesday Manila had fulfilled the request and would immediately begin with the transfer process.
"They sent the remains to Manila today (on Tuesday) from General Santos city and it will be flown to Jakarta," Marty told The Jakarta Post.
It remains unclear when the body of al-Ghozi, who was convicted last year for possession of bomb-making materials in the Philippines, will arrive in Jakarta.
Al-Ghozi died in an apparent shootout between local security officers in Cotabato province on Sunday, after a nationwide manhunt was launched in July after he escaped from prison.
He was thought to be one of the main operatives of the Jamaah Islamiyah, an al-Qaeda-linked terrorist network in Southeast Asia
The Indonesian consulate officials had confirmed the identification of the deceased and requested a funeral at home on behalf of al-Ghozi's family.
Agence France-Presse reported that the Philippine President Gloria Arroyo on Tuesday denied allegations that one of the country's most wanted terror suspect was executed to create a publicity coup ahead of a visit by U.S. President George W. Bush to Manila later this month.
Opposition politicians have reacted with anger and skepticism at Arroyo government's claim that the JI bombmaker al-Ghozi was killed in a shootout. They suspect the Indonesian was killed to prevent him from revealing police complicity in his embarrassing escape from the national police headquarters jail last July.
The governor of the area where al-Ghozi was killed, Emmanuel Pinol, said residents claimed to have heard no fighting despite police accounts that he had engaged pursuers in a gunbattle.
"There were only two shots, heard. There was no firefight," Pinol said.
The Indonesian government has refrained itself from making any comments on the incident, but focused more on the efforts to bring al-Ghozi back home.
Al-Ghozi's mother Rukana, after seeing the picture of the bombmaker in the newspapers confirmed the deceased was her son.
"Thank God it is him and he is dead," she said, with no trace of sadness.
She expressed gratitude to all parties involved in sending her son's body home. He will be buried in Mojorejo village in the East Java town of Madiun, his home village.