Domingo to PNP, AFP: Charge Jordanian or we’ll deport him

Immigration Commissioner Andrea Domingo urged the military and police yesterday to file formal charges against Jordanian businessman Mohammad Amin Al-Ghaffari by today. Otherwise, she said, immigration authorities would deport him to Amman.

Domingo said the Bureau of Immigration could no longer indefinitely detain Al-Ghaffari as he had applied for voluntary deportation.

"We are giving them until tomorrow to inform us if they are still interested in questioning him or if they still intend to file charges in connection with his alleged involvement in terrorism. Otherwise, we will have no choice but to deport him next week," she said.

"Unless charges are filed against him in court, we cannot continue detaining him indefinitely," Domingo said, adding that immigration officials are set to meet on Tuesday or Wednesday to consider Al-Ghaffari’s application for voluntary deportation.

Domingo stressed that Al-Ghaffari, who was arrested Monday night, was being detained only for holding an expired visa and not for his alleged involvement in the Oct. 2 bombing in Zamboanga City that resulted in the death of an American Green Beret and two Filipino civilians.

Jordan’s non-resident ambassador Samir Naouri echoed Domingo’s concern and dismissed as "exaggerated" reports that Al-Ghaffari was involved in terrorist activities.

"We’re leaving it up to the Philippine authorities. Jordan is also waging a war against terrorism," Naouri said earlier in a statement from Tokyo, Japan.

The Jordanian embassy released the statement on Wednesday shortly before National Security Adviser Roilo Golez said the government was handling the issue very carefully because of its "diplomatic implications."

"It is difficult to make any comments about terrorists involving foreign nationals because of its diplomatic implications," Golez told The STAR late Wednesday, refusing to elaborate on "operational matters."

Golez also refused to confirm or deny the involvement of American intelligence agents in ongoing anti-terrorist operations and said Al-Ghaffari’s case was still only at the immigration level.

The STAR, however, learned that the local intelligence community was cooperating in fighting international terrorism with several countries, including some moderate Arab states.

In their statement, Naouri also denied official knowledge of Al-Ghaffari’s alleged links to the Hamas terrorist group.

The Hamas, or Harakat al-Muqawama al-Islamiyah, is a group of Muslim extremists who banded together in 1987 as an outgrowth of the Palestinian branch of the group Muslim Brotherhood. – With Aurea Calica, Marichu Villanueva