Muslim men ordered released

JIM GOMEZ

MANILA, Philippines — Philippine prosecutors have dismissed rebellion complaints against 59 men who were stopped by police and army troops at two checkpoints in the south and accused of attempting to join Islamic State-linked militants who laid siege to a southern city.

Senior government prosecutor Peter Ong said Thursday the complaints filed by the military against the Muslim men were dismissed because of a lack of strong evidence, and authorities were ordered to free all the men.

“It is clear that respondents were not committing the crime of rebellion or any crime at the time of their arrests,” Ong and two other prosecutors said in their findings.

The men, who travelled in two big groups, may have sparked the suspicion of troops and police at checkpoints because of the Marawi siege, “but suspicion alone is not sufficient to arrest, detain, charge and indict respondents,” the prosecutors said.

Military spokesman Brig. Gen. Restituto Padilla said the military respects the prosecutors’ decision but that security officials still believe the men could “perhaps be eventually deployed to Marawi.”

The 59 were taken into custody in southern Zamboanga city and Ipil town on July 25 amid intelligence reports that Muslim militants would attempt to reinforce the gunmen who attacked Marawi and were being bombarded by military airstrikes and ground assaults.

A lone witness said the mostly young Muslim men were to be given combat training and then deployed to reinforce the beleaguered militants, who were holding out in buildings and mosques in Marawi.

The arrested men strongly denied the allegation, saying they were recruited by a man who promised to bring them to a rebel camp for combat training and then help them be integrated into the military and police under a peace deal with the government.

Ong said he and the other prosecutors did not find the witness credible.

During a hearing on July 28, some of the arrested men told reporters they were poor and jobless and in search of work and a better life.

The violence in Marawi has left nearly 800 people dead, including more than 600 militants.

BULLIT MARQUEZ/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Muslims from the besiege city of Marawi shout slogans as they are joined by other indigenous people of the country in marching around Manila to protest the continued siege and the Martial Law imposed by President Rodrigo Duterte.

SUVRA KANTI DAS/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Members of Myanmar’s Muslim Rohingya minority who were detained by Bangladeshi border guards while crossing the Naf River to enter Bangladesh sit at a temporary shelter at Shah Porir Deep, in Teknak, Bangladesh.