ASG who escaped with Al-Ghozi ordered freed

A confessed Abu Sayyaf bandit was freed Friday by a Zamboanga City judge after the complainant retracted and swore in a new affidavit that Omar Opek Lasal did not kidnap him.

"Finding no probable cause to proceed in the inquiry against accused Omar Opek Lasal but tagged in 11 counts of criminal information as Merang Abante alias San Miguel Beer for kidnapping and serious illegal detention with ransom, the cases against him are hereby dismissed," read the decision of Judge Gregorio dela Peña.

Lasal was detained at the Zamboanga City Reformatory Center (ZCRC) after Marines and Basilan police arrested him in Isabela City on March 16.

During police interrogation Lasal admitted to being a former Abu Sayyaf member, and now a civilian-military agent and close-in security of Basilan Gov. Wahab Akbar.

Lasal told police he, along with Fathur Roman Al Ghozi and Mukim Idris, escaped from jail in Camp Crame, Quezon City sometime in 2004.

It was Al-Ghozi who planned the escape after the now slain Jemaah Islamiyah bomber befriended a civilian female cook at the Intelligence Group detention center, whom he identified only as Amor.

Al-Ghozi was killed in a supposed encounter at a police checkpoint in Pigkawayan, Cotabato province, while Idris was killed in fighting with Army troops in Lanao del Norte.

During the trial of the kidnapping cases against him, Lasal told the court that he was wrongfully arrested in 2003 in Isabela City and he and Abante are different persons, he added.

Later, complainant Nilo Barandino said in his affidavit that Lasal was not Merang Abante who kidnapped and detained him and his family sometime in Nov. 27, 1992.

Several anti-terror authorities in Western Mindanao claimed that "somebody influential" could have "convinced" Barandino to withdraw the charges against Lasal.

Barandino could not be located to comment on and clarify the issue.– Jaime Laude