IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENTS

PRESS RELEASE
Hong Kong Legislator meets Prof. Jose Maria Sison
Vows to drum-up support against Dutch false charges

NDFP-IIO
26 September 2007

(Utrecht, 26 September) A member of the Hong Kong Legislative Council met with Prof. Jose Maria Sison in Utrecht yesterday and vowed to drum up more support for him in Hong Kong in his fight against the trumped-up murder case and political persecution he is facing in the Netherlands.

Hon. Leung Kwok Hung, popularly known as "Long Hair", met with Prof. Sison at the international office of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) in Utrecht to discuss the false murder charges filed by the Dutch Justice Ministry against him and his continuing political persecution. The radical legislator is highly regarded as a hero of democracy in China. Hon. Leung is in Europe in connection with the Inter-Parliamentary Union assembly in Geneva, Switzerland. A member of the radical socialist group April Fifth Action, Hon. Leung sits in the Hong Kong legislature as a member of the powerful Finance and House Committees. He also sits as a member of the Legislative Panels on Constitutional Affairs, Housing, Manpower, Transport, and on Welfare Services.

Prof. Sison faces trumped-up charges in the Netherlands for allegedly ordering the killing of Romulo Kintanar in 2003 and Arturo Tabara in 2004. The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) had earlier declared that Kintanar and Tabara headed criminal syndicates and were armed security agents of the Manila government. They were killed when they resisted arrest by units of the New People's Army. Prof. Sison, chief political consultant of the NDFP in peace negotiations with the Manila government, has been living as a political refugee in the Netherlands since 1987.

Dutch police arrested Prof. Sison on 28 August, simultaneously ransacking his home, the NDFP office and the homes of five NDFP Negotiating Panel members and staff members. He was kept in solitary confinement and underwent intense interrogation. He was released on 13 September upon the order of the District Court of The Hague because there were "insufficient indications that the accused committed the offenses he is charged with".

Prosecutors of the Ministry of Justice have appealed to the Court of Appeals to return Prof. Sison to detention. The appeal will be heard today at 3:00 pm, local time. Michiel Pestman, counsel for Prof. Sison, has declared that his client has a strong case. "I don't think he will be convicted at all. That's very unlikely. On the basis of current evidence, I don't think there is a judge that would dare to convict him," said Pestman. (NDFP-IIO)