Palestinian terror suspect falls

Immigration officials announced yesterday the arrest of a Palestinian suspected of having links with the al-Qaeda international terror network.

Fawaz Zi Ajjur, 39, also known as Ajoor, was detained on March 26 after arriving in Zamboanga City from Sandakan in Malaysia, officials said.

Ajjur was to be sent back to Malaysia for arriving without a visa but was later detained after two former Abu Sayyaf bandits, who have turned state witness, tagged him as among the six "Arab-looking" foreigners who worked with the bandit group in 2000.

Fawaz, however, claimed he was just a salesman.

Ajjur was presented to the press in Zamboanga City yesterday by President Arroyo and officials led by Immigration Commissioner Alipio Fernandez.

"This (arrest) is a big blow against the terrorist movement," Mrs. Arroyo said.

Fernandez said Fawaz was earlier put on the immigration’s hold-departure list last March 26 after immigration officers noticed that his passport had not been stamped with an entry visa.

Immigration officers initially wanted to send Fawaz back to Malaysia following standard operating procedures for excluding illegal aliens.

The departure was deferred, however, after immigration officials were informed by the management of the South Phoenix Airways that the next flight to Sandakan would not be scheduled for a few days.

Fernandez said they decided to do a background check on Fawaz in coordination with Zamboanga provincial police chief Director Vidal Querol.

Querol reported that Fawaz had previously entered the country, also through the southern backdoor, sometime in the 1980s.

"He (Fawaz) was also positively identified by two detained Abu Sayyaf members as being one of six Arab-looking foreigners who were present at the (Abu Sayyaf) camp in Patikul, Sulu in 2000," Fernandez said.

Fernandez claimed Fawaz allegedly advised the Abu Sayyaf to kidnap foreign nationals in the country.

For its part, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said it had not received a report on Ajjur yet, but that criminal laws of the Philippines would apply if the suspect is formally charged with involvement in the terrorist organization.

"He has to serve his sentence if he is convicted," said DFA spokesman Gilberto Asuque yesterday.

Security officials said Fawaz and the five other still unidentified foreign nationals were sent by international fugitive Osama bin Laden to work with the Abu Sayyaf.

They pointed out Bin Laden became very close to slain Abu Sayyaf founder Abdurajak Janjalani during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in the 1980s.

"It’s basically a payoff for what Bin Laden considered heroic acts of the Filipino Muslims for fighting alongside with the Taliban during the Afghan-Soviet War by sending his own men to train the Abu Sayyaf," a senior anti-terrorism official said. – With Jaime Laude, Roel Pareño, Pia Lee-Brago, AFP