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| Southeast Asia |
| Philippines arrests Turkish JI members |
| 2004-04-01 |
| The Bureau of Immigration (B.I.) said Thursday that it has arrested in Cotabato City four Arabic teachers from Turkey on suspicion of having ties to the Jemaah Islamiah (JI) regional terror network. Arrested were Ismael Kocabiyik, Alpaslan Gul, Ahmed Kaya, and Mansour Omercikoglu. Immigration officials said the Turks are all natives of Istanbul. Immigration agents reportedly arrested the four at the Eeman Institute where they are teaching Arabic studies. Reports said the school is owned by Zamzmin Ampatuan, executive director of the Office of Muslim Affairs. Ampatuan said the immigration agents were armed with arrest warrants authorizing the detention of the four for "alleged links to the J.I." Ampatuan reportedly said he does not believe the charge. "That is not true. These people are peace-loving educators who have been helping us run our educational institute," a wire report quoted him as saying. Reports added that security officials have said they are monitoring the activities of certain foreign Islamic missionaries who they fear could be helping recruit members to Islamic militant groups such as al-Qaeda or the J.I., a Southeast Asia-based network blamed for the Bali blasts that killed 202 people in 2002. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |