Philippines asks court to outlaw Abu Sayyaf group

The Justice Department recently lodged its petition against the al-Qaida-linked group with a trial court in southern Basilan province — the Abu Sayyaf's birthplace — in the first known government attempt to ban a rebel group under a 2007 anti-terrorism law, officials said.

Abu Sayyaf members currently cannot be arrested unless they commit a crime.

If approved, the measure would criminalize membership in the Abu Sayyaf and allow authorities to freeze financial assets of militants more rapidly and limit their travel. It would serve as a new legal weapon against the group, which has survived years of U.S.-backed offensives, state prosecutor Nestor Lazaro said.

The more than 200 names that would be added to the blacklist are members of the group who have been identified so far out of the estimated 400-strong membership.

Another prosecutor, Al Calica, said authorities would be able to secure court permission faster to monitor phone conversations and look into bank accounts of blacklisted terrorists.

“This will help cripple the group,” Lazaro told The Associated Press.

The militants are determined to pursue jihad, or holy war, “in any shape or form ... without regard to violation of laws or even sacrificing innocent lives,” according to the 22-page petition, which cited the Abu Sayyaf's charter.

Founded in 1991, the Abu Sayyaf has not only waged local attacks but has worked with foreign militants to carry out attacks abroad, the petition said. It has reportedly given sanctuary to Indonesian terror suspects, including Dulmatin — a key suspect in the 2002 Bali nightclub bombings who was killed by police last March in Indonesia.

The Abu Sayyaf, which has not issued any public statement for years, could not be reached for comment.

Washington has listed the Abu Sayyaf as a terrorist group and deployed hundreds of troops to the southern Philippines in 2002 to provide combat training, weapons and intelligence to Filipino soldiers battling the militants, who have targeted Americans.

U.S.-backed offensives have killed or captured many of the group's commanders, leaving it without an overall leader to unify its factions in Basilan, nearby Jolo island and the Zamboanga peninsula.

The government petition cited 20 major bombings and atrocities by the Abu Sayyaf, including a 2004 attack that ignited an inferno in an inter-island ferry and killed 116 people and the separate kidnappings of dozens of mostly European tourists and three Americans in early 2000.

State prosecutors asked the Basilan court to include at least 210 militants on the new terror blacklist, including Zulkifli bin Hir, a Malaysian militant wanted by Washington for alleged terrorist involvement and who is believed to have provided bomb-making training to the Abu Sayyaf.

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