Dutch prosecutor drops all charges against Sison

By LOUI GALICIA, ABS-CBN Europe News Bureau 03/31/2009 6:07 PM

The Dutch Public Prosecutor’s Office in Rotterdam confirmed to ABS-CBN Europe News Bureau that it had dropped all its charges against Communist Party of the Philippines’ (CPP) founding chair Jose Maria Sison.

Public Prosecutor’s Office spokesman Wim de Bruin said that after more than a year and a half of criminal investigation, results did not yield sufficient evidence implicating Sison in the murders of the CPP founding chairman’s erstwhile allies Arturo Tabara and Romulo Kintanar.

”He [Sison] was notified that the Prosecution service will not continue the prosecution of Mr. Sison. The main reason is that the criminal investigation [yielded] insufficient evidence,” de Bruin said.

De Bruin said that they are dropping all the charges and will not pursue any more any investigation. He said, however, that Sison is not one hundred percent free.”

Only if there are, if there are new facts or circumstances, the investigation may be reopened. It’s not probable that it’s going to be, but theoretically, it’s possible,” de Bruin said.

Sison was arrested on August 28, 2007 but was released on Sept. 13 after a Dutch court said it did not find sufficient evidence to keep him in custody.

Sison was arrested by the International Crime Investigation Team of the Dutch National Criminal Investigation Department on allegations of he was involved in the assassinations of Romulo Kintanar and Arturo Tabara that took place in Philippines.

Dutch prosecutors however continued its investigation of Sison and continued to file motions in court to detain him.

Court decisions favored Sison on Sept. 23, Oct 3 and Nov. 29 when the investigative judge closed the criminal pre-investigation case.

During this period, the Dutch Public Prosecutor’s Office vowed to continue its investigation and said that Sison remains a suspect.

Sison filed an appeal on May 20, 2008 against the continued investigation on the charges but the Dutch court previously ruled June 5 in favor of the Dutch Public Prosecutor's Office.

SOURCE: WWW.ABS-CBNNEWS.COM

http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/nation/03/31/09/dutch-prosecutor-drops-all-charges-against-sison
as of 03/31/2009 6:13 PM