MANILA - Philippine prosecutors today said they would file criminal charges against two men linked to an Indonesian bomb-making member of the Jemaah Islamiah extremist group in custody here.

The national police allege Malaysian businessman Faiz Abu Bakar Bafana and Riduan Isamudin, also known as Hambali, were involved in a plot to obtain explosives in the Philippines for use in terror attacks on the US and Israeli embassies in Singapore.

Riduan is an Indonesian with a Malaysian permanent resident status.

Faiz is among those detained under the Internal Security Act in Singapore. Riduan's whereabouts are unknown.

The prosecutors were to charge the two for illegal possession of explosives, based on evidence gained by the police that included testimony of Indonesian Fathur Rohman al-Ghozi, sentenced here for up to 12 years in prison for illegal possession of explosives.

Al-Ghozi is an alleged explosives expert of the radical Islamic Jemaah Islamiah, which Asian governments say has links to the al-Qaeda terror network. He was arrested in Manila in January.

In its resolution, prosecutors said al-Ghozi admitted he worked for a construction firm owned by Faiz in Malaysia and was recruited into the Jemaah Islamiah.

Separatist war

Riduan and Faiz dispatched him to the Philippines to purchase explosives and the two also visited here in 2000 to look into the separatist war being waged by Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) guerrillas in the south, prosecutors said.

Filipino associates of the two supplied explosives used in a series of deadly bombings in Manila in 2000 that claimed over a dozen lives, prosecutors added, citing police reports.

Al-Ghozi testified that Faiz and Riduan procured explosives not just for the Jemaah Islamiya but for the MILF, entrenched in a Muslim separatist war in the south.

The group signed a ceasefire with the government last year to negotiate for peace and has consistently denied links to Jemaah Islamiah.

Earlier this year, 13 suspected members of Jemaah Islamiah were arrested in Singapore for their alleged involvement in a terror plot.

Undergoing interrogation

National Security Adviser Roilo Golez said al-Ghozi and another Indonesian militant also convicted for explosives posession, Agus Dwikarna, were being detained at national police headquarters in Manila.

"Al-Ghozi has already been convicted of illegal posession of (explosives). Right now, he is undergoing additional interrogation on possible involvement on other activities," Golez said.

"We have no doubt of al-Ghozi being guilty of some terrorist act."

Golez also sought to reassure public fears that detention of the Indonesians here could be a magnet for attacks by their sympathizers. AFP