Batasan bombing suspects to be charged today (Monday)

By Ronron
November 18, 2007

The police will file today (Monday) criminal charges against the three suspects behind the Batasan bombing last November 13 that killed Basilan Representative Wahab Akbar and three Congress staffers.

A source from the Philippine National Police (PNP) who is privy to the investigation said Sunday that Ikram Indama, Kaidar Aunal and Adham Kusain will be charged with multiple murder and multiple frustrated murder before the Department of Justice (DOJ) this morning (Monday).

Indama, Aunal and Kusain were nabbed last Thursday afternoon after police and Army operatives raided a suspected hideout of Abu Sayyaf leader Abu Jandal in Barangay Payatas-B, Quezon City. Jandal has standing arrest warrants for kidnapping with serious illegal detention.

The three were found to be staying with Jandal and a couple in the same house. Jandal and the couple died during the raid.

“One of the suspects admitted that Cong. Akbar was really their target,” the police source told Manila Shimbun in Filipino in a phone interview yesterday afternoon.

But the source refused to disclose further the alleged motive and mastermind since police investigators are still verifying the claims of the suspects.

“We have those information already but we cannot make it public yet because we are still conducting follow up operation,” he said.

The source said the three denied being members of the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) but he said police are not immediately believing them.

“They said only Redwan Indama and Jandal are ASG members. They were just together because they are relatives. But we were still looking at it because it could just be an alibi,” he said.

National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) chief Director Geary Barias said in a radio interview yesterday that the case against the three suspects stems from the death of Akbar and three others, and the wounding of at least 13 other people, including Congressmen Luzviminda Ilagan of Gabriela Party-list and Henry Teves of Negros Oriental.

Police had earlier linked the three to the Batasan bombing after some materials that were recovered from their safehouse proved to have connection with the November 13 incident.

One of those is the matching of the chassis number reflected in the Deed of Sale of a motorcycle recovered during the raid, and the bar code on a motorcycle part recovered after the explosion in Batasan.

Another evidence is the alleged statement of a Batasan Security Guard that he saw Indama and Kusain enter the complex last November 13.

Police had recovered a House of Representative ID of Indama during the raid but they said this was not enough to drag former Basilan Cong. Gerry Salappudin into the case.

Salappudin admitted that Indama was his driver during his term, but he denied ordering the assassination of Akbar even as he acknowledged that they are political rivals.

Asked if any of the three suspects could turn into a state witness, Barias said: “That will depend on the development of the case because the investigation will still continue. But it is possible that at least one can be a state witness so that we will not have a difficulty as we proceed on this case.”/DMS