Jakarta – Indonesia's National Assembly Speaker Amien Rais on Tuesday accused police in the Philippines of engineering the arrest of three Indonesians on terrorist charges, a report said.

Rais said a friend of Tamsil Linrung – one of the three suspects detained by authorities in Manila – had told him that Philippine police were currently "creating a new charge" for them.

"Tamsil told one of his friends through a mobile phone that the Philippines government is currently creating a new charge. So clearly this is a product of fabrication," Rais was quoted by the state Antara news agency as saying.

Rais said the Philippine police had made "a blunder" in arresting Linrung and two other Indonesians – Agus Dwirkana and Abdul Jamal Balfas – at Manila airport on March 13.

Police said they had found bomb-making materials in their bags. Linrung, a former treasurer with Rais' National Mandate Party, has repeatedly denied he carried the materials.

In an interview carried by the Koran Tempo newspaper on the weekend, he accused Philippine police of planting explosives in his luggage. Linrung said he had the impression that police had been waiting for his arrival at the airport, adding that he believed the aim of his arrest was to "block" Rais' chances of ever rising to the presidency.