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Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Dutch judge closes murder probe of Joma Sison (9:29 p.m.)
AMSTERDAM, Netherlands -- A Dutch judge closed the murder investigation of exiled former Philippine communist leader Jose Maria Sison on Wednesday, citing a lack of evidence against him.
Although the decision deals a heavy blow to the prosecution, national prosecutor's office spokesman Wim de Bruin said the file on Sison was not yet closed, and that they may still attempt to indict him in the next two months.
Sison, 68, was arrested in August and jailed when prosecutors announced plans to prosecute him in the Netherlands for murders he allegedly ordered carried out in the Philippines - he but was ordered released by The Hague District Court in September, due to a lack of evidence.
Prosecutors appealed, but judges of The Hague Appeals Court upheld his release, adding that there was a "possible political context" to the charges against Sison - who is on the EU's list of terrorism suspects.
In Wednesday's strongly worded ruling, the investigating judge said prosecutors had also failed to show grounds for continuing Sison's investigation.
"It has been decided up to the highest possible court that no serious suspicions against the suspect can be deduced from the current dossier of evidence against him," C.M. Derijk's written decision said. He criticized prosecutors for not responding to that basic issue in their request to continue the case, filed on November 16.
As things stand "there are no grounds for continuing the investigation," Derijk said.
The prosecution spokesman said, however, that prosecutors would exercise their right to continue investigation without sanction of the judge.
"It's an unusual situation," he said.
Reached by telephone at his home in Utrecht, Sison applauded the judge's decision and said it removed one obstacle for the resumption of peace talks between the government of Philippines President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and the nearly 40-year communist insurgency.
Sison describes himself as chief political consultant to the National Democratic Front, an umbrella group of leftist organizations that includes the outlawed communists.
Talks with the NDF have been frozen since mid-2004, and this year Arroyo's government has both issued an amnesty proposal to rebels and vowed to stomp them out before her term in office expires in 2010.
Dutch prosecutors accuse Sison of ordering the murder of Romulo Kintanar in 2003 and Arturo Tabara in 2004. The Communist Party, which the European Union designated a terrorist group in 2002, has claimed responsibility for both slayings.
Sison helped found the CPP in 1968, but spent 10 years in prison under the regime of Ferdinand Marcos and has been in the Netherlands for 20 more. Sison, who denies any role in the killings, says he has been gone too long to hold any direct power in the organization. (AP)
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