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Philippine court hands down terror convictions

(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-01-23 17:34

MANILA, Philippines – Three men, including one of the Philippines' top terror suspects, were sentenced to life in prison Friday for the 2000 Manila bombing that killed 11 people in an attack that revealed close coordination among militants across the region.

Abdul Patak Paute, one of the terror suspects in the December 2000 series of bombings in Manila that killed about 22 people and wounded 100 others, is escorted into a courtroom for his promulgation along with two other suspects Friday, Jan. 23, 2009 in Manila, Philippines. [Agencies]

The five near-simultaneous bombings on Dec. 30, 2000 left a total of 22 dead and about 100 wounded, but the court found the three men guilty of only the main attack on a train station.

The ringleader, Saiffulah "Moklis" Yunos, was described by prosecutors as an explosives expert and self-confessed member of the main Muslim separatist group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. The two others convicted and sentenced to life without the possibility of parole were Abdul Patak Paute and Mamasakul Naga.

The judge said he rejected their denials and alibis because they were positively identified by witnesses.

The Philippine and US governments accused Yunos of carrying out the bombings on behalf of the regional terror group Jemaah Islamiyah.

Officials said he worked closely with Indonesian Fathur Roman Al-Ghozi, a demolition expert who bolted from a Manila jail in July 2003 and was killed in a shootout with police three months later in the southern Philippines, a militant hide-out and training ground.

Prosecutors said Al-Ghozi and Yunos had confessed to buying about 155 pounds (70 kilograms) of explosives used to bomb the targets. Yunos prepared the bombs' wiring while Al-Ghozi admitted preparing the switch on the alarm-clock triggers and packing the explosives, they said.

It was the deadliest terrorist attack until the al-Qaida-linked Abu Sayyaf group bombed a ferry in Manila Bay in 2004, killing 116 people.

The main Muslim rebel group, which has been fighting for self-rule in the predominantly Roman Catholic nation's south, has repeatedly denied links to Jemaah Islamiyah and publicly renounced terrorism. But security officials believe some commanders are providing refuge to militants, including Indonesians fleeing a crackdown in their own country.

Rebel spokesman Eid Kabalu has said previously that both Al-Ghozi and Yunos had met with the group's present chief, Al Haj Murad, as fighters against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s.

He said that after the war ended, Al-Ghozi and Yunos went to a rebel camp to join the group but they were turned away.

Philippine and U.S. officials have said that Yunos assisted Jemaah Islamiyah operations chief Hambali — arrested in Thailand in 2003 — in conducting surveillance of the U.S. and Israeli embassies in Manila.