Police say al-Ghozi is Canadian national

A man arrested in Manila over his alleged links with the al- Qaeda network is not an Indonesian, but a Canadian, police said on Monday.

National Police spokesman Isp. Gen. Saleh Saaf said police had not found anything linking Fathur Rohman al-Ghozi, alias Sami Salim Jalil, a member of the Jemaah Islamiyah Muslim organization -- recently arrested by police at a rented house in the Philippines capital -- with Indonesia.

"Sami is a Canadian. Maybe he was born in Indonesia, but he is a Canadian citizen, not an Indonesian. Whatever he did, that's not Indonesia's business," Saleh said.

According to Saleh, press reports that said Ghozi was an Indonesian involved in terrorism were part of a campaign to discredit Indonesia as a haven for terrorists.

"It is not true that Indonesia is a hotbed of terrorism. What exists in Indonesia is people who are accused of terrorism by anyone -- foreign countries or nongovernmental organizations -- that dislike Indonesia," he said.

Saleh also denied media reports that al-Qaeda networks existed in Indonesia, noting that police investigations showed no evidence of their existence here.

Earlier, Minister of Foreign Affairs Hassan Wirayuda said the government was trying to verify al-Ghozi's citizenship.

"According to a report in the Singapore media, this man has resided in Singapore for quite a while and is married to a Malaysian ... Is this man still an Indonesian national?" he asked, after accompanying a UN human rights official to meet President Megawati Soekarnoputri. -- JP