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| Southeast Asia |
| Philippines: Court scraps murder charges against Muslim Rebel Cheif in South |
| 2006-11-07 |
| Manila, 7 Nov. (AKI) - A court in the southern island of Mindanao has scrapped murder and attempted murder charges filed against the head of the Philippines' largest Muslim rebel group, government prosecutor Al Calica told AdnKronos International (AKI) on Tuesday. "Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) chief Al Haj Ibrahim Murad was removed from the list of suspects facing murder and frustrated [attempted] murder charges," Al Calica said when reached on the phone in his office in the city of Kidapawan, some 570 km southeast of Manila. "The evidence against him was purely heresay. So that was inadmissible," Calica said. Police had charged Murad and several suspected MILF commanders with plotting a bomb attack in Makilala town, which left six dead and 30 wounded on 10 October. Calica did not mention whether other MILF commanders had been removed from the list. The 11,900-strong MILF has been engaged in peace talks with Manila. The talks, brokered by Malaysia, recently drew to a halt over the rebels' demand to include close to 1,000 villages as part of their proposed homeland without a referendum. Manila rejected the demand. The MILF subsequently warned that the talks could end up in an open conflict with authorities if the territorial issue remained unresolved. The peace talks between the government and MILF started on January 1997 without an international mediation. It was only on March 24, 2001, after the all-out war against the MILF declared by former Philippine president Joseph Estrada, that Malaysia, at the behest of the Philippines government, started to act as mediator.Manila, 7 Nov. |
| Posted by:Shineck Gleamble5964 |
| #1 this is a bad man. They just need to shoot him and be done with it. |
| Posted by: 49 Pan 2006-11-07 19:26 |