‘Marwan’s brod held in California, not Guantanamo’

MANILA, Philippines - After confirming through DNA testing that the man killed by police commandos in Mamasapano, Maguindanao maybe  Malaysian terrorist Zulkifli Abdul bin Hir alias Marwan, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has clarified that his brother – the source of the DNA sample used for matching – is detained in California and not in Guantanamo Bay.

FBI spokesman Joshua Campbell said media reports that Marwan’s brother Rahmat Abdhir is detained in Guantanamo are not accurate.

“According to publicly available information from the US Bureau of Prisons, he is incarcerated at a facility in California,” Campbell said in a statement sent to The STAR.

Meanwhile, Interior Secretary Manuel Roxas II confirmed last night that Marwan is dead.

“It’s official, SAF got Marwan,” said Roxas as he released a copy of the official FBI report on Marwan’s DNA testing.

He ordered Philippine National Police (PNP) officer-in-charge Deputy Director General Leonardo Espina to provide copies of FBI results to families of the 44 slain and 15 wounded soldiers and the entire SAF unit.

“This establishes a positive identification of the person neutralized by the PNP-SAF in Barangay Pidsandawan, Mamasapano, Maguindanao on Jan. 25 was that of the wanted international terrorist,” said Roxas.

It was a ranking Philippine military intelligence official who said that Rahmat was in Guantanamo for terror-related activities.

Rahmat was arrested in California in 2007 for conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists and for giving false statements to authorities.

Police commandos who killed a man believed to be Marwan in his hideout in a remote village in Mamasapano, Maguindanao last Jan. 25 cut off an index finger from the corpse for DNA testing as they could not carry the body as they came under heavy fire from Muslim guerrillas.

The severed finger was turned over to the FBI.

While the DNA sample from the finger matched that of his brother’s, the FBI said results of the laboratory analysis conducted in Quantico, Virginia, are preliminary and that further laboratory testing and analysis would be conducted.

Ambassador Jose Cuisia Jr. said he received information on the findings from Chief Superintendent Jose Gentiles, the embassy’s police attaché who was coordinating with the FBI.

“Based on preliminary test results, the FBI has evidence that supports the claim that the DNA sample provided by the government of the Philippines on Jan. 27, 2015 is related to currently incarcerated subject Rahmat Abdhir,” the FBI informed Gentiles. – With  Paolo Romero, Cecille Suerte Felipe