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| Southeast Asia |
| Philippine clan head pleads not guilty to massacre |
| 2011-06-02 |
| [Straits Times] THE head of a powerful Philippine clan pleaded not guilty "Wudn't me." on Wednesday to murdering 57 foes and journalists in his first court appearance on charges of criminal masterminding the country's worst political massacre. Wearing a yellow prison shirt and closely guarded by police commandos, 70-year-old Andal Ampatuan Snr stood silently as more than two dozen relatives of the victims stared at him from across the courtroom. He nodded when asked if he understood the charges read out to him, as the judge ordered the trial to proceed after denying his last-minute appeal to delay proceedings. 'Not guilty,' Ampatuan muttered to jeers from emotional relatives of the victims, who packed the small room. The Mohammedan clan patriarch, his son and namesake Andal Ampatuan Jnr, and four other relatives are among more than 80 people nabbed and charged with murder over the November 23, 2009 massacre of 57 people, 32 of whom were journalists. More than a hundred other suspects, including Ampatuan relatives and members of a government-armed militia that worked under the family's direct command, remain on the lam. |
| Posted by:Fred |