ZAMBOANGA CITY, 21 August 2005 — Three arrested members of the Al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayaf group who arrested by the police in last week’s twin bombings in this southern Philippine port city were freed on bail late Friday, to the dismay of local officials.
A court gave the three suspects temporary liberty here after their families posted a 320,000-peso (over $5,700) bail for each of them.
?ll three suspects — Adzmar Abduraop, 33; Angon Asmari, 32; and Ibnoyatim Salangin, 31 — have been charged with frustrated murder for the bombing, which injured 26 people. The suspects all come from the island of Basilan, a hotbed of insurgency and stronghold of the Abu Sayyaf.
“We cannot do anything, but to free them because the court orders so,” said Supt. Edwardson Tagaoc of the Zamboanga City Reformatory Center.
Police arrested the three men hours after a bomb explosion ripped through a parked mini-van in Campaner Street in downtown Zamboanga during rush hour on Aug. 10.
A second blast tore through the second floor of a three-story building that houses a restaurant, motel and several shops, just 30 meters away from the main police headquarters.
The families of the three men condemned the arrest and accused authorities of torturing them into admitting the attacks. They said the trio were picked up by the police hours after the blasts and then tortured them.
“They are not Abu Sayyaf. They are innocent and good citizens. They tortured them,” a wife of one the three men told reporters two days before they were freed.
Another woman said the trio were applying for passports in Zamboanga.
the Department of Foreign Affairs’ regional office here and showed documents to back her claims.
But the police insisted the three were involved in the attacks. “The three men were positively identified by witnesses, who saw them in Campaner Street minutes before the blast,” local police chief Henry Losanes said.
Zamboanga City Mayor Celso Lobregat has lamented that the country does not have an anti-terrorism law, which could allow police to hold suspects without bail.
Lobregat later met with police and military officials and asked them to monitor the suspects’ movements.
Officials said the bombings may have been intended to divert a major military offensive against Abu Sayyaf chieftain Khadaffy Janjalani in a southern province.
