Envoy: Kadafi won’t be freed

KOTA KINABALU: Manila is confident that notorious cross-border kidnap gang leader Kadafi Muktadil, who is wanted by Malaysia, will not be freed from Jolo lock-up anytime soon as he is under investigations for other kidnappings in the southern Philippines.

Philippines Ambassador to Malaysia J. Eduardo Malaya said it was “very unlikely” that the wanted man would be freed by the courts.

Kadafi’s lawyer is attempting to get the courts in Jolo to release him from police custody, on the basis that the warrant of arrest from a Sandakan court was a photostat copy and there is no extradition treaty between Malaysia and the Philippines.

Kadafi is not only being sought to account for the kidnap and murder of Bernard Then Ted Fen but also for other kidnappings perpetrated in Mindanao.

“Criminal charges have been filed against him for the kidnapping and illegal detention of Philippines coastguard personnel Rod Allain Pagaling in May 2015 in Pagadian City (Mindanao),” said Malaya.

He was responding to The Star report on Thursday on concerns that a photostat arrest warrant issued by the Sandakan court might not hold weight in the Philippines court.

Malaya, however, said that the early receipt of authenticated copies of the arrest warrant and related papers (which were earlier requested by the Philippines) would be helpful for the case, though there were currently ample legal justifications for the Philippines judicial system to keep him confined in jail.

Malaya added that the Kadafi case and other cases showed enhanced working partnership between Philippines and Malaysian authorities, which is mutually beneficial.

Kadafi, who took part in the kidnapping of Then, had through his lawyer applied to the Philippines court for his release because the arrest warrant submitted by the prosecutors was merely a photostat copy.

He was captured by Philippines police at a Jolo hospital after he was injured in a motorcycle accident on Nov 28.

The criminal and his brother Mindas were alleged to have led the May 14 Sandakan kidnapping where they grabbed Then and restaurant manageress Thien Nyuk Fun from the Ocean King Seafood Restaurant.

Mindas was killed by Philippines police in Jolo town later the same month.

Thien was released on Nov 8. Then was beheaded by the Abu Sayyaf gunmen after ransom negotiations collapsed on Nov 17.

Malaysian police are interested to question Kadafi and hoped to charge him in Malaysian courts for the Sandakan kidnapping case.

Police are also seeking the assistance of their Filipino counterparts to question another suspect, Saddam Jailani, believed to be part of the Abu Sayyaf group that beheaded Then.