The Philippines will send a team to Indonesia next week to interrogate a suspected member of regional militant group Jemaah Islamiah they say was involved in a series of bombings in the southern Philippines. Chief Superintendent Ismael Rafanan, the head of national police intelligence, said on Wednesday Mustaqim was detained near the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, just weeks after returning from a Muslim rebel camp in Mindanao in the southern Philippines.
| That's one of those camps that Lipless Eddie sez aren't there, and don't take furriners anyway... |
"Our investigators are going there because we don't have any extradition treaty with Jakarta," Rafanan told reporters. "We really wanted him back to face criminal charges, but there could be some legal obstacles."
| Like the Indons won't give him up? |
Rafanan said police were informed about Mustaqim's arrest and two other Indonesians near Sulawesi on June 30. The three were held by authorities because they were listed as suspected Jemaah Islamiah (JI) militants. Police intelligence officials said Mustaqim lived in the southern Philippines for six years and married a local Muslim woman. They said he headed a JI training camp inside the Muslim rebels' camp Abubakar before it fell in 2000. Before coming to Mindanao, Mustaqim taught Islamic studies at the Pesanten Lukmanul Hakiem in Malaysia. In the JI camp, called Hubadiyah, he was also head of the Mujuhilis Mujahadid Indonesia, or the Indonesian JI unit in the southern Philippines.
| Obviously a turban of some consequence... |
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