Philippines detains Abu Sayyaf co-founder

The Philippines announced Wednesday one of the co-founders of the Al Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf group had been arrested after being detained at Jakarta airport using a false passport. Indonesian authorities picked up Abdul Basir Latip on November 21, but he was only brought back to Manila on Wednesday, said Philippine National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) spokesman Ricardo Diaz. The NBI said Latip was a founding member of the Abu Sayyaf and had worked with its spiritual leader, Khadaffy Janjalani, who the Philippine military killed in 2006. Daiz said Latip served as a conduit of funds between Al-Qaeda leaders in Saudi Arabia and the Abu Sayyaf, a militant group blamed for the Philippines' worst terror attacks. His involvement was not as a fighter but as a finance officer and the conduit for Al-Qaeda to facilitate transfer of funds to the ASG (Abu Sayyaf group), said Diaz. The United States is also seeking Latip's extradition for the Abu Sayyaf's kidnapping of American missionary Charles Walton in the southern Philippines in 1993, according to Diaz. Diaz alleged Latip had acted as a masked spokesman for the Abu Sayyaf during the Walton kidnapping, but he had been recognised through a birthmark on his left temple. A Philippine court will decide whether Latip will be extradited to the United States to be tried for the kidnapping of Walton, who was released by the Abu Sayyaf after the Libyan government stepped in to mediate. There is still an extradition process ahead. It will be the court that will decide if he is to be extradited or not, Diaz said. The bewhiskered Latip, wearing a T-shirt and a bandana, looked weary as he was processed by the National Bureau of Investigation in front of reporters, during which he insisted on his innocence. I was not a member of the ASG but I am a close friend of Janjalani, he said in clear English. However he admitted to using a fake passport when detained in Jakarta. He said he had stopped there while returning to the Philippines from Jordan. It was not clear how long he had been overseas for. The Abu Sayyaf was founded to fight for an independent Muslim state in the south of the mainly Catholic Philippines. Its rebels operate in remote and often lawless islands of the southern Philippines, resorting to kidnappings for ransom and other crimes to raise funds. A small number of US troops have been based in the southern Philippines to help train Filipino soldiers in fighting the Abu Sayyaf since late 2001.