Malaysia Charges 8 Filipinos with Terror Crimes

21 March 2013

Malaysian prosecutors charged eight Filipino men with terrorism-related offenses on Wednesday following an armed siege in Borneo that killed 71 people. The eight are the first to face charges after an estimated 200 members of a Filipino Muslim clan slipped into Malaysia’s Sabah state last month and took over a village to highlight their long-dormant territorial claim to the timber-rich state. Subsequent firefights killed 62 clansmen and nine Malaysian police and army personnel, according to Malaysia’s government. Some of the surviving Filipinos are believed to have fled back to the neighboring southern Philippines, while a few dozen are allegedly hiding on palm oil plantation land in Sabah.—AP