Int’l Lawyers Ask European Council 
To Remove Sison from ‘Terrorist’ List

HYDERABAD, India  – A group of international lawyers, including a Filipino human rights counsel, last week appealed to the European Council to remove Filipino exile Jose Maria Sison from its list of “foreign terrorists.”

BY BULATLAT.COM

The lawyers, led by P.A. Sebastian, chair of the International Association of Peoples Lawyers (IAPL), and Filipino counsel Edre Olalia, also asked the Dutch government to revoke its Sanction Regulation of Terrorism 2002 III which led to the freezing of Sison’s bank account and the prohibition to anyone from giving any assistance to the political refugee.

Sebastian, who is from Mumbai, India and Olalia said the sanction unjustly criminalizes Professor Sison as a “terrorist” without due process despite the fact that there are no pending charges for criminal or political offenses against him anywhere in the world.

The lawyers also said the terrorist tag threatens to derail the peace talks between the National Democratic Front - of which Sison is the chief political consultant – and the Philippine government.

The lawyers’ appeal was made in a press conference sponsored by the Hyderabad Press Club in this city 12 noon (India time) Jan. 7. The news conference was covered by several journalists from India as well as foreign wire agencies.

In a written statement, the IAPL said the Dutch government’s sanction also demonizes Sison and incites public hatred against him, and subjects him to punitive measures such as the freezing of his bank account and withdrawal of the basic necessities of life due him as a recognized political refugee.

Olalia, on the other hand, said there is now a growing concern that the U.S. and Dutch governments may extradite Sison, who has been on exile in The Netherlands since 1987, to the United States based on some trumped-up charges.

Sison was included in the U.S. state department’s list of “foreign terrorists” following State Secretary Colin Powell’s meeting with Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in Manila August last year.

The decision of the European Council with regards Sison, meanwhile, will be questioned before the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg next month, Olalia said.

Speaking for the IAPL, Sebastian and Olalia asked both the U.S. and Dutch governments to immediately remove Sison, as well as the Communist Party of the Philippines and New People’s Army from their list of terrorists; the total and unconditional lifting of sanctions that have been imposed; and the full respect for the most basic rights of Sison as a citizen and his rights as a recognized political refugee protected by international conventions.

In the same news conference, Rita Baua, secretary-general of the International League of People’s Struggles (ILPS)-Philippines, revealed the growing international campaign to defend not only the rights of Sison but other progressives and revolutionaries “who are being unjustly branded as terrorists by the Bush government the European Council.”

Baua said the demonization of Sison as a “terrorist” has set a worldwide trend by which anyone opposed to U.S. policies and its “war on terror” would be branded a “terrorist.”

IAPL groups human rights lawyers from 13 countries including the Philippines, who are committed to defend the rights of citizens particularly political refugees whose basic political rights are under attack.

The ILPS, on the other hand, is composed of various people’s organizations from 40 countries whose constituencies run in their millions.

ILPS, along with the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan and other cause-oriented groups in the Philippines, took part in the Asian Social Forum (ASF) Jan. 3-7 held in this city. The ASF was attended by some 20,000 delegates from India and Asian countries. Bulatlat.com 

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