Philippines 'bomb plotter' is Al-Azhar envoy - clericBy Agence France Presse (AFP) Monday, December 24, 2007
CAIRO: An Egyptian man held in the Philippines for allegedly plotting a Christmas bomb attack is an envoy of Sunni Islam's highest seat of learning who was arrested by mistake, the institution's grand imam said on Sunday. Al-Azhar's Sheikh Mohammad Sayyed Tantawi told Egypt's official MENA news agency that he was personally following up the case of Sheikh Mohammad al-Sayyed Ahmad Mussa who was arrested by police in the Philippines on Tuesday. Mussa, identified by Philippine police as Mohammad Sayyed, was arrested during a raid on a flat in the Majad Islamic School in the southern city of Cotabato. An explosive device fashioned from a 60-millimeter mortar round and ball bearings attached to a timing device were recovered from his room. Philippine police said the Egyptian was captured after surveillance and that intelligence reports suggested he planned to detonate the bomb at an undisclosed location in the city on Christmas day. Among the items they said were recovered from his room was a booklet on the organization of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, a rebel group that has been fighting to set up an Islamic state in the southern Philippines. Tantawi said he hoped Mussa would be released "within the coming couple of days" and that the arrest was a mistake. - AFP
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