Huge Bounty Offered for Escaped ‘Terror Bomber’

Wednesday, July 16, 2003

By Al Jacinto

Special to Arab News

Ebdane told reporters he would be satisfied to recover Al-Ghozi, “even if he is dead and torn to pieces. If you have a gun and see Al-Ghozi, shoot him.”

MANILA, Philippines -- AN
Embarrassed by the escape of a confessed terror-bomber Fathur Rohman Al-Ghozi from a maximum-security prison, authorities yesterday offered a five-million-peso ($93,000) bounty for his recapture, alive or dead.

Interior Secretary Jose Lina said the government has also put up a two-million-peso bounty for Abdulmukim Edris and one million pesos for Omar Opik Kasak, suspected members of the Abu Sayyaf kidnap gang, who fled with Al-Ghozi.

The three prisoners, all linked to worldwide movement of Muslim militants, escaped from their tightly guarded cell at the Philippine National Police (PNP) headquarters in Manila before sunrise on Monday.

Investigators suspect that there was a connivance by jail guards in Al-Ghozi’s escape. At least 3 guards and three senior police officials were relieved of their posts on Monday and are currently being investigated.

President Gloria Arroyo, who was meeting with Australian Prime Minister John Howard in Manila when news of the jailbreak broke out, has ordered the filing of criminal charges against police involved “up to the highest level of command responsibility possible” and the creation of a single, maximum-security jail for high-profile prisoners.

“Camp Crame is gaining notoriety for its very porous detention centers, and it is becoming hard to believe that these escapes of heinous criminals are the result of ordinary laxity,” she said in a statement. “We must pin the culprits down and find a permanent solution to this problem.”
(More: ArabNews.com)
2003 © Arab News.

Dan