Detained ulama’s release pressed

COTABATO CITY — Hundreds of Muslim preachers held a prayer rally here the other day for the release from detention at Camp Crame of a Libyan-trained missionary arrested in Maguindanao last Jan. 17 due to his alleged links with international terrorists.

Sheikh Jaafar Ali, a schoolmate of detained ulama Ustadz Abdulgani Pagao, 50, at the World Islamic Call College in Tripoli, Libya, said the prayer rally was meant to "vouch" for the integrity of Pagao.

Ali, a member of the Darul Iftah (House of Opinions), said the police provided Pagao’s relatives with a copy of his arrest warrant issued by Pasig City Regional Trial Court Judge Alex Quiroz only after he was arrested in Datu Odin Sinsuat, Maguindanao and brought to Manila.

"If there was any criminal or rebellion case filed against him, he was not even asked by any state prosecutor or court to answer the charges first under the principle of due process," Ali said. — John Unson