Wife of Indonesian terror suspect ordered deported
Quezon City (18 October) -- THE Bureau of Immigration (BI) has ordered the wife of alleged Indonesian terrorist Dulmatin deported for violating the country's immigration laws.
BI chief Alipio Fernandez Jr. said Istiada Oemar Sovie will be expelled from the country pursuant to a summary deportation order issued by the Immigration Board of Commissioners.
"She will be deported as soon as we have secured the necessary clearances from the courts and police," Fernandez said.
He added that Sovie will also be placed on the immigration blacklist, barring her from returning to the country.
BI special prosecutor Maria Antonette Bucasas said the deportation order against Sovie stemmed from her own admission that she “illegally and surreptitiously” entered the country from Malaysia in 2003.
Bucasas said Sovie also admitted that she also brought along her five children and that all of them do not have any travel documents.
"She also confessed that she did not pass through the required inspection or processing by immigration authorities; hence she is both an undocumented and overstaying alien," Bucasas said.
Sovie, who was arrested in Sulu with her two sons on October 3, is in the custody of the Intelligence Services of the Armed Forces of the Philippines.
Dulmatin and another suspected member of the Jemaah Islamiyah terrorist network are with the Abu Sayyaf in Sulu where they are the targets of a military offensive. The two are accused of carrying out the 2002 Bali bombing, which killed more than 200 people. (PIA) [top]
