Court orders release of Ampatuan on bail
Posted by ampatuan | Posted in Case Updates | Posted on 09-03-2015
CMFR/PHILIPPINES –The court trying the accused in the November 23, 2009 Ampatuan Massacre has ordered the immediate release of a primary suspect after he posted the required P11.6-million bail bond.
In a 9 March 2015 order, Branch 221 judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes of the Regional Trial Court of Quezon City ordered the immediate release of Sajid Islam Ampatuan, a son of Ampatuan family patriarch Andal Ampatuan Sr. and the OIC-governor of the province of Maguindanao at the time of the planning of the massacre.
The order came two months after the court granted Sajid Islam’s petition for bail last 9 January 2015. It said that there was no strong evidence of guilt and that there was no showing that Sajid Islam played an active role in the November 2009 meetings during which the blockade and murders were planned.
Sajid Islam was unable to immediately post bail in January 2015 pending a motion for reconsideration filed by the prosecutors.