Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II shows the photo of arrested suspect Karen Aizha Hamidon, who was tagged by authorities of spreading extremist propaganda and recruiting foreign fighters on the internet during a news conference. INQUIRER.net / Jhoanna Ballaran
The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) has arrested a woman suspected of using the internet and social media to spread radical Islamic extremist propaganda and recruit foreign fighters to commit terrorist acts in the Philippines.
Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II presented to the media on Wednesday Karen Aizha Hamidon, wife of terror leader Mohammad Jaafar Maguid and former wife of Singaporean terror leader Muhammad Shamin Mohammed Sidek.
Maguid was the leader of Ansar Khalifa Philippines (AKP), the group behind the September 16, Davao City night market bombing and the foiled attempt to bomb the U.S. Embassy in Manila. He was killed by the police in January 2017 in Saranggani.
Sidek is detained in Singapore for his alleged links with the Islamic State (IS).
Aguirre said Hamidon was also a close associate of Musa Cerantonio, an Australian Islamist preacher who has inspired numerous foreign fighters to join the IS.
Prior to her arrest, Hamidon had been posting on various public groups in messaging application, Telegram and Whatsapp, “statements calling on Muslims to come to the Philippines to establish a province of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria,” Aguirre said.
Hamidon was arrested on October 11, 2017, in her home in Taguig City by operatives of the NBI Counter Terrorism Division (NBI-CTD) through a search warrant.
Agents seized cellphones, laptops, tablets, and other electronic devices from the suspect’s possession.
Upon recovery of her devices, agents found that Hamidon sent a total of 296 messages inciting to rebellion, 250 of these were sent to foreign nationals in India and Singapore, Aguirre said. /jpv
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