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Monday, December 05, 2005
'Fitmart 3' hearings finally set
THE long delayed trial of three affiliate members of party-list Bayan Muna who were arrested in connection with a bomb attack in General Santos City three years ago has finally moved on following the intervention of the Department of Justice (DOJ).
Chief State Prosecutor Jovencito Zuño has ordered the public attorney's office (PAO) to look into the case and provide the necessary legal assistance to the three men, who spent the last three years in detention without any trial.
"An investigation into the illegal arrest, detention and torture of Jejhon Macalinsal, Aron Salah, and Abubakar Amilhasan may soon commence after our appeal to look into the allegations was acknowledged by the DOJ," the Hong Kong-based Asian Human Rights Commission said in a statement.
In a letter from Chief Public Attorney Persida Rueda-Acosta dated November 14, the group said the PAO has assigned District Public Attorney Yolanda Ogena to handle the case.
The directive for Ogena's assignment to the case was in response to an earlier letter received by Acosta from prosecutor Zuño, who ordered them to take appropriate action on the case.
The three suspects, tagged as prime suspects in the bombing of the Fitmart Department Store here on April 21, 2002, had repeatedly declared their innocence and claimed they were mere scapegoats.
The three men are facing charges of illegal possession of explosives and firearms before the Regional Trial Court Branch 35 and the Municipal Trial Court in Cities Branch 3, respectively.
However, no cases directly related to the bombing, which killed 15 people and injured more than 60 others, had been filed against them since their arrest on April 24, 2002. (Allen V. Estabillo)
(December 5, 2005 issue)
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