Muhammad Ilham Syahputra, the Indonesian who was arrested yesterday and suspected of fighting alongside Filipino terrorists with the Islamic State-linked Maute group, was moved to Camp Crame this afternoon.
READ: IS ‘straggler’ from Indonesia captured in Marawi
ABS-CBN News published his mugshot, released by the Philippine National Police (PNP), earlier this afternoon.
Police said they arrested Syahputra after village officials found him trying to flee, adding he would face rebellion and terrorism charges.
“He is part of the siege and an initial (encounter) in Piagapo,” provincial police chief Senior Superintendent John Guyguyon told reporters, referring to a military operation in April against the militants in a town 45 minutes away from Marawi.
In a video obtained by GMA News, Syahputra told military officials in Tagalog that while he was fighting with the Maute, he was actually an “intelligence officer,” something he failed to prove to Philippine authorities.
Not exactly helping his case? The fact that he referred to himself as an “intelligent officer” rather than an “intelligence officer.” Perhaps not the most “intelligent” move.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7Mz54KRqHY
Syahputra said there were at least 39 more fighters left in the area that had been declared “liberated” by President Rodrigo Duterte last month.
Syahputra is currently in the custody of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) inside Camp Crame.
According to military officials, the Indonesian arrived in the Philippines upon the invitation of Isnilon Hapilon to take part in the siege.
Police recovered a .45 pistol, a grenade, foreign currencies, passport, and a mobile phone from him.
Hapilon and Omar Maute, top leaders of Maute group, were killed in a military assault last Oct. 16, a day before the combat operations in Marawi ceased.
with reports from ABS-CBN News, Agence France-Presse
