The Jakarta Post, 5/2/2006 4:09:09 PM
RP praises Indonesian conviction of Islamic militant
MANILA (AP): Philippine security officials on Tuesday welcomed an Indonesian
court's conviction of an Islamic militant who is believed to have helped raise funds and
plan terrorist attacks in the country.
An Indonesian court on Monday sentenced three Islamic militants, including Abdulah
Sunata, to up to seven years in prison for sheltering Southeast Asia's top terrorist
suspect Noordin Top and financing bombings in Indonesia.
The court said all three had connections with the al-Qaida-linked militant group
Jemaah Islamiyah, which has been blamed for a string of deadly suicide attacks.
Sunata has admitted meeting Top, but denied terrorism charges.
Senior Superintendent Romeo Ricardo, officer-in-charge of the Philippine police's
Intelligence Group, said Sunata allegedly played a key role in recruiting new
Indonesian members of Jemaah Islamiyah whom he sent to terrorist training camps in
the southern Philippines.
Sunata frequently corresponded with two top Indonesian terror suspects - Dulmatin
and Umar Patek - who are believed to be hiding with Abu Sayyaf guerrillas in southern
Mindanao region, where Filipino Islamic insurgents have been waging a decades-long
secessionist war, he said.
Sunata allegedly was trying to help raise funds in the Middle East to finance terror
attacks and training in the Philippines, Ricardo said, citing captured mails between
Sunata and Dulmatinand Patek.
In a swap of letters discovered by Indonesian police, Sunata discussed with Dulmatin
the deployment of Indonesian would-be suicide bombers for an attack in the
Philippines, the purchase of explosives in the country for a bombing in Indonesia,
recent arrests of Indonesian militants in the Philippines and tips forcasing potential
targets, according to confidential Philippine government reports seen by The
Associated Press last September.
"It's a good development because we know their network is being cut," Ricardo said of
Sunata's conviction.
Ric Blancaflor, an official of Manila's Anti-Terrorism Task Force, said Sunata's
conviction "was an encouraging sign," considering he was arrested last year with the
help of Indonesia's new anti-terrorism law.
Washington has offered huge rewards for the capture of Dulmatin and Patek, who are
key suspects in the 2002 nightclub bombings that killed 202 people in Indonesia's
resort island of Bali.
They fled to the southern Philippines to escape an Indonesian government manhunt
and are believed to be hiding with Abu Sayyaf guerrillas on southern Jolo island or
nearby Basilan or Tawi Tawi provinces, Ricardo said.
The small but brutal Abu Sayyaf group has also been linked to the al-Qaida. (**)
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