ZAMBOANGA CITY (Mindanao Examiner / June 30, 2012) – The Philippine military said it would arrest a veteran Jordanian journalist – who is filming a documentary on the Abu Sayyaf in the southern island of Sulu – for espionage.
Baker Atyani, the bureau chief in Pakistan of the Arabic television news channel, Al-Arabiya, has gone inside camps of the terror group along with his two Filipino assistants, to film leaders of the Abu Sayyaf that authorities have linked to al-Qaeda and Jemaah Islamiya.
“We will arrest him as soon as he gets out of the Abu Sayyaf – for espionage – and interrogate him about his mission,” said Col. Jose Johriel Cenabre, deputy commander of naval forces in southern Philippines, in an interview with the Mindanao Examiner.
Cenabre said they were investigating the true intention of Atyani’s clandestine interview with terror leaders. “Atyani is freely moving in the hinterlands with Abu Sayyaf terrorists and we are monitoring the situation,” he said.
There were also reports in Sulu that Atyani was taken hostage and that militants are demanding huge ransom.
Other reports claimed Atyani was a conduit for the Abu Sayyaf and that the ransom demand was only a cover to hide the flow of funding to the terror group, including Jemaah Islamiya, blamed for the string of attacks and bombings in the Philippines.
Military and police said Atyani arrived in Sulu on June 11 and went to the Abu Sayyaf the next day to secretly interview terror leaders and other rebel commanders, including Jemaah Islamiya militants hiding on the island.
The Jordanian journalist had made prior arrangement with the Abu Sayyaf to film a documentary about the terror group. Authorities said Atyani also deceived local officials after he claimed to be filming government projects in Sulu, one of five provinces under the Muslim autonomous region.
Atyani, who had previously interviewed al-Qaeda terror leader Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan months before the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, contacted his colleagues to say that they are being held against their will.
But Jainab Abdulmajid, a spokeswoman for the Sulu provincial government, said Atyani, and his crew Rolando Letrero and Ramelito Vela, are interviewing Abu Sayyaf militants.
She said they received reports that Atyani’s group are moving from one camp to another along with the Abu Sayyaf militants.
“Atyani is not a hostage and in fact there is no indication that any crime or complaint is evident. The only established fact is that he is freely moving around with the ASG. The AFP also received similar reports from the ground,” Abdulmajid said, referring to the Armed Forces of the Philippines.
Provincial officials had repeatedly warned Atyani against interviewing the Abu Sayyaf, but the trio went ahead and secretly met with terrorist leaders, among them Nadzmie Alih. They were first reported missing after failing to return to their hostel in Jolo town, but phoned local officials two days later to say that they were still filming a documentary on the Abu Sayyaf.
Jordan insisted the trio was kidnapped, but Robredo and other security officials denied this and said Atyani’s group went to meet with terrorists on their own volition and despite being prevented by the police and military.
“They can eat, they can roam around, they are not physically deprived, however, their situation has now apparently taken a turn for the worse,” Chief Superintendent Mario Avenido, the regional police chief, said.
The military’s Western Mindanao Command said Atyani had previously filmed in secret the Abu Sayyaf in Sulu province. “Atyani had been in and out of Sulu in the past and secretly interviewing terrorist leaders,” said Lt. Col. Colonel Randolph Cabangbang, a regional army spokesman. (Mindanao Examiner)
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