(Eagle News)–Jose Maria Sison slammed President Rodrigo Duterte for what he said was his “ignorance of international law” following his threat to arrest the Communist Party of the Philippines founding chair who is facing multiple murder charges in a Manila court.
The charges stem from the 2006 discovery of a mass grave in Inopacan, Leyte which allegedly contains the remains of victims of a Communist purge in the 1980s.
In a statement, Sison said Interpol, in the first place, cannot arrest him because he said he was “a recognized political refugee.”
“I am protected by the Refugee Convention and by the European Convention on Human Rights,” he said.
According to Sison, there was also “no extradition treaty between the Netherlands and the Philippines, not to mention the Europe-wide bad standing of the Duterte regime as human rights violator and mass murderer.”
He said the charges against him were “invalid,” and “cannot pass the test of due process in the Netherlands.”
“I have my rights to be informed of the charge, to have counsel and to ask for judicial review,” he said.
In any case, he said his lawyers “can easily debunk the charge which refers to a fabricated incident in 1985.”
He said at that time, he was “under maximum security detention and had no authority in the CPP and (New People’s Army.)”
“Duterte and his military nincompoops are just doing psywar about something that they do not know anything about. They merely expose their ignorance of international law by repeatedly yakking that I am subject to extradition by Interpol,” Sison said.
