The Hague, 5 June 2008 – Today, the District Court of The Hague decided in camera that the Public Prosecution Service (OM) may continue the prosecution of Jose Maria Sison for involvement in, among other matters, a number of murders committed in the Philippines in 2003 and 2004.
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After Sison was placed in pre-trial detention on 28 August 2007, the District Court ordered the termination of the pre-trial detention on 13 September 2007 for lack of grave presumptions. On 3 October 2007, the Court of Appeal also came to this conclusion during the appeal that the Public Prosecution Service had brought against this decision. The preliminary inquiry against Sison was closed on 21 November 2007. Within the period of two months provided for by law, the Public Prosecution Service subsequently informed Sison on 17 January 2008 that he would be prosecuted further. On 25 January 2008, Sison submitted an objection against this decision and requested the District Court to waive prosecution.
In today’s decision, the District Court primarily considered that the case file still holds insufficient concrete indications that would justify the establishment of Sison’s liability under criminal law for the murders. That is why, based on the secured evidence by the Public Prosecution Service so far, it should be considered highly improbable that the Criminal Court will come to a conviction of Sison in its later judgment.
Furthermore, the District Court has considered that by closing the preliminary inquiry, the Public Prosecution Service was bound to make the decision within two months whether to prosecute Sison further or not. The investigation into his involvement was still going on at that time. During the proceedings with regard to Sison’s objection, the Public Prosecution Service announced that the investigation was still ongoing at that moment. In concrete terms, the Public Prosecution Service put forward that research is still being done into the contents of the seized computer files and that it is being considered to take (further) testimony from a number of witnesses for the prosecution.
It is the opinion of the District Court that the Public Prosecution Service should be allowed sufficient time to continue and finalize the investigation, so that they can take a properly balanced decision about the question whether Sison should be summoned to defend himself before the Criminal Court or not. It cannot be excluded that the current investigation could furnish new relevant data. This is why it is the Court’s opinion that it is not already an accomplished fact that it would be highly unlikely that the Criminal Court, later and based on the eventual evidence, would consider the charges wholly or partly proven.
It is for this reason that the District Court has dismissed the objection as unfounded. Based on this decision, the Public Prosecution Service may continue their criminal proceedings against Sison.
The English translation of the decision of the Court has been published under LJ-number BD3241.
