BI clears Malaysian of terror raps

The Immigration Bureau cleared yesterday the Malaysian travel agent suspected of being the finance officer of the al-Qaeda network in Southeast Asia and ordered his deportation for violating Philippine immigration laws.

Azmi bin Salleh was arrested Wednesday in possession of 104 Malaysian passports and $57,250 in cash while he was about to board a flight bound for Kuwait at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport.

Immigration Commissioner Andrea Domingo said in a statement that Azmi "will be deported to Malaysia not for being a terrorist but for trying to spirit out $50,000 in violation of (this) country’s laws and engaging in gainful occupation here without the proper visa."

After thorough investigation, the immigration chief said, the bureau found that he was, as he claimed, a travel agent arranging for visas for a group of Malaysian pilgrims to Mecca, Islam’s holiest site in Saudi Arabia.

Winnie Quidato, the bureau’s chief legal investigator, said Azmi was trying to circumvent regulations that limit visas for Saudi Arabia to only one percent of the population per country by arranging visas for his Malaysian clients from the Philippines.

The scheme did not work because the Saudi government does not grant visa to applicants from third countries, Quidato said. "This forced Salleh to try his luck in Thailand but he was intercepted at the airport before he could fly to Bangkok," she said.

Azmi also violated Philippine Customs regulations, which set a $10,000 limit to the amount of foreign currency that can be taken out of the country with the need for a Customs declaration.

Police authorities had suspected that Azmi was a member of the radical Muslim group Jemaah Islamiyah, suspected of involvement in a supposed plot to bomb Western targets around Southeast Asia, and that the passports he was carrying were meant for use by the senior members of Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda network who fled Afghanistan.

Washington believes that Bin Laden masterminded the Sept. 11 hijack air attacks on the United States and has launched its war against terror to crush the Saudi-born militant, his terror network and their Taliban protectors in Afghanistan.

When he was arrested, Azmi told immigration officials that he was a sympathizer of Bin Laden but denied any involvement with al-Qaeda.

Since the Sept. 11 attacks, the police at airports and seaports have scrutinized foreign Muslim travelers, fearing they might set up links with local Islamic militants fighting for a Muslim homeland.

Recently police arrested an Indonesian, an alleged key figure in Jemaah Islamiyah, that led to the seizure of a cache of explosives in the south. The Indonesian, Fathur al-Ghozi, is now in custody. — With wire reports