Philippine court convicts bomber

MANILA, Philippines — A Philippine court has convicted a man for a daring 2007 motorcycle bombing that killed a Muslim rebel-turned-congressman and three other people and wounded 10, including two legislators.

Judge Ralph Lee of the Regional Trial Court Branch 83 on Friday convicted Ikram Indama but acquitted two other key suspects in the Nov. 13, 2007, bombing that killed Rep. Wahab Akbar as he walked out of a lobby at the House of Representatives.

Indama, who has links to Muslim militants, was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, according to a copy of Lee’s decision.

Senior Assistant State Prosecutor Peter Ong said that Indama, a cousin of a notorious Abu Sayyaf extremist commander in the country’s south, brought the motorcycle laden with a bomb and was identified through closed circuit television.

Ong said the attackers had also plotted to kill Akbar before, including the previous day, but he was absent from the lower house.

Former Rep. Luzviminda Ilagan, who survived the bombing with leg and back wounds, head burns and a shattered ear drum, welcomed the conviction but said government investigators should continue efforts to identify the other suspects involved in the attack.

“The next question is who ordered him to do so and what was the motive?” Ilagan said by phone.