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Friday, May 16, 2003
EU judge won’t unfreeze assets of Filipino rebel leader (8:40 am)
LUXEMBOURG -- An EU judge has refused to unfreeze the assets of exiled Filipino communist Jose Maria Sison, who claims he is wrongly included in an EU terrorist list, the court said Thursday.
The judge in the Court of First Instance ruled that Jose Maria Sison, who allegedly controls the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People's Army (CPP-NPA), did not urgently need his assets to be unfrozen.
"The President of the (court) has dismissed an action for interim relief aimed at the unfreezing of funds of a person included on the community's list of suspected terrorists," said a court statement.
Under a 2001 EU ruling, any person named on the list of suspected terrorists -- which includes people involved in suspected terrorist activities or controlled by suspected terrorists -- must have their assets frozen.
In December 2002, Sison's name was added to the list along with the New People's Army. Dutch authorities immediately froze Sison's assets and suspended welfare payments to him.
At the start of this year the suspect, a Philippine academic who won refugee status in the Netherlands in 1992, applied to the Luxembourg court to have his name removed from the list.
A final judgment on such cases takes 21 months on average, according to a court official.
The new judgment simply rejects his application to release his assets.
"The President recalls that, for an application for interim measures to be granted, the applicant must show that such measures are required as a matter of urgency," said the court statement.
But it noted that Sison can apply to Dutch authorities to receive funding to meet his "basic needs."
"As the condition of urgency is not satisfied, the president has dismissed the application for interim relief," it said. AFP
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