RP indicts Hambali, seven others for deadly bombing

RP indicts Hambali, seven others for deadly bombing

Agence France-Presse, Manila

Asia's most wanted man, Hambali, and seven other people have been
indicted in the Philippines for the bombing of Manila's overhead
railway that killed 22 people in 2000, the justice department
said.

Hambali, born Riduan Isamuddin, and Faiz Abubakar Bafana, two
alleged leaders of the Jamaah Islamiyah (JI) group, were indicted
along with Indonesian Fathur Rohman al-Ghozi and five other men,
justice department officials said.

Only al-Ghozi will go on trial as Bafana is detained in
Singapore and Hambali and the others are at large.

Hambali and Bafana were indicted based on confessions and
evidence that they had conspired in the plot that resulted in a
bomb blast in the overhead railway in Manila in December 2000.

The two allegedly met with al-Ghozi, Filipino Muslim rebel
bomb expert Saifullah "Mukhlis" Yunos, and several others in
Manila a week before the blast.

The two alleged JI leaders were charged with plotting the
bombing, having allegedly given Yunos 280,000 pesos (US$5,245)
between November and December 2000 to finance the attack, the
charge sheet said.

The indictment reiterated that the bombing was retaliation for
the government's capture of several camps of the Muslim
separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in the southern
Philippines earlier that year.

The head of a special MILF unit, Alim Pangalian Solaiman,
allegedly sent Yunos to carry out the bombings in Manila, on
orders from Salamat Hashim, the head of the MILF, the department
said.

Yunos has already been indicted separately for the bombing and
is set to be arraigned on Tuesday.

The government has previously charged that the MILF, the
country's main Muslim separatist group, has ties with the JI but
the rebel group has denied this.

Along with Hambali, Bafana, al-Ghozi and Solaiman, the new
indictments also named Zainal Paks, Salman Moro, Mohamad Amir and
a certain Ustad Said, for either helping plot the bombings or
procure the explosives.

Another alleged member of the plot, Abu Ali, has become a
state's witness in the case, the department said.

Al-Ghozi is already serving a 12-year jail term for illegal
possession of explosives, while Yunos was captured by police in
the Philippine south in May.

Hambali, an Indonesian, is believed to be the link between the
al-Qaeda network of Osama bin Laden, blamed for attacks on U.S.
targets, and the JI.

The JI allegedly staged the Bali blasts last October and other
attacks.

As JI's former operations chief Hambali is said to have played
a key role in directing the Bali attack and the Christmas Eve
bombings of churches and priests in Indonesia that killed 19
people in 2000.

Indonesian police had previously said Hambali may have fled to
Pakistan.