| Submit your comments on this article |
| Southeast Asia |
| Philippine clan leader pleads not guilty to massacre |
| 2012-12-13 |
| A Philippine politician charged with helping plan the country's worst political massacre pleaded not guilty on Wednesday to organising the murder of at least 57 victims. Zaldy Ampatuan, allegedly one of the main plotters of the 2009 attack in the country's south, entered a plea after the court struck down months of maneuvers challenging the legality of his arrest. The Ampatuan clan allegedly carried out the massacre in November 2009 to keep a rival candidate from challenging one of their members in upcoming local elections. At the time Zaldy Ampatuan was governor of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, a self-rule area where then-president Gloria Arroyo armed hundreds of the clan's supporters to help the military fight Islamic The family patriarch and his son are also among 75 suspects on trial. The two are accused of plotting the murders along with Zaldy Ampatuan and other clan members. Andal Ampatuan Jr. allegedly led a group of about 100 gunmen in stopping a convoy of cars carrying relatives of the rival candidate, their lawyers and journalists, and then gunning them down in a remote area. The massacre, in which the victims were buried in mass graves using an excavator owned by the provincial government, shocked the nation. Philippine police said 103 people have been arrested over the massacre. However more than 90 other suspects remain at large, raising fears the clan may still be able to intimidate potential witnesses. |
| Posted by:ryuge |