THE Philippine Embassy in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, reported to the Department of Foreign Affairs that the High Court of Kota Kinabalu dropped charges against 11 Filipinos accused of involvement in the Lahad Datu incident in February 2013.
However, the same Court ordered the 16 other Filipinos accused of waging war against the Malaysian king and involvement in terrorism to present evidence in their defense.
Judge Stephen Chung found no prima facie evidence against 11 of the 27 accused, and the charges against them were ordered dropped.
The Court gave the prosecution 14 days to file an appeal on the dismissal of the charges. If no appeal were filed, 10 of the 11 acquitted will be released and eventually sent home. One of the 11, Totoh bin Hismullah, may remain in Malaysia as he had been found by the Court to be already a Malaysian citizen and no longer a Filipino.
On the other hand, the Court found prima facie evidence against the remaining 16 Filipinos and were ordered by the Court to present, through their lawyer, evidence in their defense. This will give them an opportunity to rebut the charges against them.
The determination made by the Court is only preliminary and was based on the evidence presented by the prosecution. A verdict on the culpability, if any, of the 16 remaining accused will not be rendered until the defense has completed the presentation of its evidence, which is expected to begin later this month.
All 27 accused Filipinos were represented before and during the trial by Malaysian lawyer Datuk N. Sivananthan, who was retained by the Philippine Embassy and paid for by the Philippine government. An embassy representative was present at Friday’s hearing.
The accused were also visited regularly by embassy officers and personnel.
The Philippine Embassy will continue to extend assistance to the accused Filipino nationals, the report added.