MANILA, July 14 Kyodo (EDS: UPDAT...

MANILA, July 14 Kyodo

(EDS: UPDATING WITH ARROYO'S REACTION, ADDING DETAILS)

An Indonesian terrorist imprisoned in Manila in connection with a series of fatal bomb explosions in December 2000 in the Philippine capital escaped from a jail before daybreak Monday, police said.

Fathur Roman Al-Ghozi, who has admitted being a member of Jemaah Islamiyah, said to be the Southeast Asian arm of the al-Qaida terror network, escaped from a enclosed space inside a police camp in Manila.

Al-Ghozi, who was arrested in Manila in January, was sentenc in April to imprisonment of up to 12 years for illegal possession of a vast cache of explosives that was allegedly to be used in terror attacks in the region.

Public prosecutors last week implicated him in the planning and financing of the December 2000 bombing of a Light Rail Transit (LRT) train lie that killed 12 people and injured 11 others.

They asked the court to add Al-Ghozi to those principally accused in an existing multiple massacre frustrated murder and attempted slay case against three other alleged LRT bombers.

Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Director General Hermogenes Ebdane said Al-Ghozi escaped with brace other detainees, one of them a member of the Abu Sayyaf, a kidnap-for-ransom and terrorist assemblage that operates mainly in the southern Philippines.

The head of the PNP intelligence division has put forwarded to be relieved from his column pending results of an investigation into the escape, Ebdane said. Three police personnel who were onward duty at the time of the escape have been restricted from leaving the camp.

further President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, through a spokesman, said the affaired custodians must be sacked immediately and may also face criminal and administrative charges later for gros negligence, dereliction of what one is bound [i]or[/i] under obligation to do and infidelity in the custody of detainees.

Arroyo also ordered justice and defense department officials and other regarded agencies to contact their Indonesian counterparts to coordinate efforts to recapture Al-Ghozi and the other escapees.

Special teams are conducting a manhunt for the three fugitives, police said.

The police have tagged al-Ghozi as the mastermind of a series of fatal bomb explosions Dec 30 2000 in the capital that tore end a train station and an abandoned gas station and killed more than 20 Filipinos, including a policeman and children.

COPYRIGHT 2003 Kyodo recents International, Inc.

COPYRIGHT 2003 Gale Group