Joma wants terror tag lifted

By Perseus Echeminada

Sunday, July 15, 2007



Manila--Exiled communist leader Jose Maria Sison hit the Dutch embassy in Manila and the Philippine government for defying a European Union Court order, which has ruled that his rights were violated when he was included in list of terrorists by the European Union.

Sison said the European Union’s Court of Justice has ruled in his favor but the Dutch embassy in Manila and Philippine government have insisted that he remains in the terrorist watch list.

The European Union’s Court of Justice last week overturned a decision by EU governments to freeze the assets of the exiled communist leader, along with those of the Netherlands-based Al-Aqsa Foundation.

In ruling, the Luxembourg-based court said EU governments breached European law by not informing the parties why their assets were being frozen under the EU’s anti-terrorism policies.

“They denigrate this judgment by insinuating that it amounts to nothing and has no bearing and effect on the decision of the Council that has retained me in the terrorist blacklist,” Sison said in a statement.

He said the facts of the case covered by the judgment are mainly within the period from the Council’s first decision to include him in the blacklist on Oct. 28, 2002 to the final public hearing on his case on May 30, 2006.

“The judgment annuls what it could cover as the last of the serialized decisions of the Council of the EU to keep me in the terrorist blacklist and to impose unwarranted sanctions on me,” Sison said.

The court also ruled that the Council has violated Sison’s rights to defense, and has failed to comply with the obligation to state reasons for blacklisting him and has violated his right to effective judicial protection.

Sison said the order also enjoined the EU Council to bear the costs of the litigation that he and the National Democratic Front (NDF) had incurred as plaintiff and intervener, respectively..

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