Indonesia to provide lawyer for Omar Maute widow

ILIGAN: The Indonesian consul will reportedly hire a private lawyer for Minhati Madrais, the slain Omar Maute’s widow, who was arrested last week in Barangay Tubod after the police allegedly found four blasting caps, two detonating cords and a one-time fuse inside her house.

Public Attorney’s Office (PAO) lawyer Viviene Mostrales, assigned to assist Madrais after her arrest, said she received a text message from Indonesia’s National Police Liaison Officer Wahyu Candra Irawan that the Indonesian Consulate is hiring a private lawyer for Maute’s widow.

Mostrales said Madrais’s private lawyer is expected to prepare and submit the counter-affidavit to the complaint against her being investigated by Deputy City Prosecutor Celso Sarsava of the City Prosecutor’s Office.

Police have confirmed that Madrais and her children are detained at the holding center inside the Philippine National Police (PNP)-Iligan compound in Tipanoy.

Meanwhile, Barangay Tubod chairman Jocelyn Alcuizar said residents near the Madrais house have requested for a houseto-house check of possible other terrorists living in area.

She said they have requested the PNP to assist them in the search.

Senior Supt. Leony Roy Ga, city police chief, said there is already a move on the part of the PNP to intensify its intelligence information gathering not only in Tubod but in all the 44 villages of Iligan City.