SC orders transfer of trial of Indonesian terror suspects

By Tetch TorresINQUIRER.netFirst Posted 06:58pm (Mla time) 12/31/2007
MANILA, Philippines -- The Supreme Court has ordered the transfer of the trial of suspected Indonesian terrorists from Zamboanga City to Quezon City.
In a two-page resolution, the high court’s second division granted the request of the Department of Justice (DoJ) to transfer the trial of Nasir Hamid Didik Resmiadi aka Ted Yolanda, Saifuddin aka Muhammad Yusuf Karim Faiz and Mujahir Dela Merced.
The accused were charged with smuggling of firearms and explosives and other terrorism-related activities in Mindanao.
Last July 16, the DoJ through Chief State Prosecutor Jovencito Zuno and Senior State Prosecutor Leo Dacera, asked the Supreme Court to transfer the trial of the case from the Zamboanga Regional Trial Court to any court in Manila.
The request was made following an intelligence report that a certain commander Wahid Tundok of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) was monitoring the transfer of all the terror suspects from the Philippine National Police Custodial Center in Camp Crame, Quezon City to Zamboanga City Regional Trial Court Branch 14.
The DoJ said the transfer of the “extremely dangerous and considered high risk detainees” would entail additional security and transport cost to the government. The accused are also flight risk.
The Indonesian nationals were arrested in February 2005. Reports from the PNP showed that the group of the suspects disembarked from a commercial vessel that came from Bongao, Tawi-tawi when they were arrested at the port of Zamboanga City. They entered into the country through the southern backdoor from Sulawesi, Indonesia and Sandakan, Malaysia.
Found in their possession were components used in making improvised explosives as well as two handguns, two cellular phones and training manuscripts from the Jemaah Islamiyah training camps in Maguindanao and US$7,000 to be used in their bombing operations in key cities in Mindanao and Metro Manila.

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