ZAMBOANGA CITY, 16 October 2003 — Omar Opik Lasal, the Abu Sayyaf rebel who helped slain Jemaah Islamiya bomb-maker Fathur Rohman Al-Ghozi escape, is a government spy, according to an official of the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).
Eid Kabalu, the separatist group’s spokesman, was reacting to Lasal’s reported claim that they were by MILF forces in the southern Philippines after their July 14 escape from a high-security police prison in Manila.
Lasal had been quoted by local media reports as saying they hid in MILF camps under rebel leader Akidin Abdusalam and Salip Aloy Alsree until his arrest Oct. 8 in Dumalinao town in Zamboanga del Sur province.
Four days after Lasal’s capture, Al-Ghozi was reported killed in an alleged shootout with police commandos and soldiers in Pigcawayan town, also in Zamboanga del Sur. Edris was captured and killed in September at a military checkpoint in the province of Lanao del Sur, also in Mindanao.
According to Kabalu, Lasal was actually instrumental in the killing of Al-Ghozi.
“That’s not true. There was no firefight and Al-Ghozi was executed by the police and military. Al-Ghozi was killed because of Lasal, who is the contact man of the government inside the Abu Sayyaf group,” Kabalu told journalists in Central Mindanao.
He also repeated his previous denials that their fighters had been hiding Al-Ghozi.
Akidin Abdusalam, he said, had long been expelled by the MILF because of his illegal activities, Kabalu said. Alsree, he said, has denied accusations that he protected Al-Ghozi. “It is simply not true and we are ready to face any government investigation so the truth will come out,” Kabalu said
Doubts had been cast on the killing of Edris and Al-Ghozi, with some saying they were summarily executed. (Al Jacinto)
so as not to implicate the police’s complicity in their “escape.”
The escape of the trio from Camp Crame, the national police headquarters, embarrassed President Gloria Arroyo, who was hosting the prime minister of Australia on that day.
Kabalu also denied news reports the MILF coddled Al-Ghozi and that the police allegedly paid them as much as P50 million ($909,000) to hand over the foreigner to the government.
“We strongly deny any links with Al-Ghozi and the MILF did not harbor or coddle Al-Ghozi. We were not paid P50 million and this report is part of black propaganda by the military and police to discredit us,” Kabalu said. “It is part of a grand design to drum up financial support and military aid from the United States and other nations allied with America.”
A military spokesman, Lt. Col. Daniel Lucero, insisted yesterday that Al-Ghozi was killed killed in a legitimate operation.
