CA affirms conviction of 2 Indonesian terrorists

The Court of Appeals has upheld the conviction of two Indonesian terrorists who were sentenced to up to 40 years in prison for their role in the February 2003 bombing of Awang Airport in Maguindanao.

In a March 30 resolution, the appeals court’s Special 16th Division sustained the July 2015 ruling of the Pasig City Regional Trial Court Branch 154 which found Zulkifli Julkifli and Taufiq Rifqi guilty beyond reasonable doubt for murder and double attempted murder.

Rifqi and Julkifli, also known by their aliases Donis/Doni, Ofracio and Ahmad Faisal, were members of the dreaded Rajah Solaiman Movement, a local terror cell with links to the Abu Sayyaf Group and the al-Qaida terror network.

The court had also previously affirmed the guilty verdict meted out on the Indonesian bombers’ two Filipino cohorts, Feliciano delos Reyes and Dinno Amor Pareja, in connection with the explosion in Awang Airport, which killed a soldier and wounded several others.