(Eagle News)–A Jordanian tagged as a former henchman of Osama Bin Laden’s brother-in-law has been arrested in Mindanao, the Bureau of Immigration said.
According to Immigration Commissioner Jaime Morente, 51-year-old Mahmoud Afif Abdeljalil was nabbed last July 4 by joint operatives of the BI, military and police in Zamboanga City.
The operation was conducted following a surveillance of the Jordanian, who, together with an Algerian, had been flagged down at a military checkpoint in Zamboanga in August last year.
“We are going to deport him for being an illegal entrant as he has no record of arrival, after he was arrested and deported in 2003 for being an undesirable alien,” Morente said.
According to the BI, during questioning, Abdeljalil admitted he returned to the country in 2007 after he was deported in 2003 for having an expired visa and for involvement in clandestine terrorist activities as a Palestinian under the name Mahmood Afif.
The BI said the Jordanian, who served as the point man of Mohammed Jamal Khalifa, a Saudi businessman and Bin Laden’s brother-in-law, in managing charity organizations in the south that funneled money to terrorist groups Al Qaeda and the Abu Sayyaf Group, falsified documents that enabled him to stay in the country.
Three years after he was deported, the Bangko Sentral Pilipinas supposedly froze Khalifa’s bank accounts and financial assets.
The BI said based on reports from authorities, even after Khalifa was killed in 2007, Abdeljalil continued to extend financial support to the Abu Sayyaf.
The agency said he used as fronts several mosques and Madrasah schools that he built in the south that received Al Qaeda funding from abroad.
