Misuari granted temporary freedom

A lower court judge yesterday granted temporary release to a jailed leader of a former Muslim separatist group which staged a rebellion in 2001 leaving more than 100 dead.

Judge Sixto Marella said Nur Misuari would be allowed to leave detention at a police camp outside Manila for four days for medical examination. The 68-year-old Misuari has been complaining of poor health.

Marella gave Misuari’s lawyers 10 days to provide the court with the names and addresses of the hospitals where he would have his tests.

Misuari, the charismatic leader of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), has been in detention outside Manila but has recently asked the courts for the medical furlough.

The medical tests were necessary to guarantee Misuari’s "right to be fit for trial," his lawyer, Arthur Lim, said.

Manila’s chief peace negotiator Jesus Dureza said the government had no objections to Misuari being allowed out for medical reasons.

"I will welcome any humanitarian gesture extended to chairman Nur if his plea for medical treatment due to his physical condition meets the favorable consideration of the court," Dureza said.

The MNLF in 1996 signed a peace pact with Manila, abandoning its struggle for an independent Muslim state in the southern island of Mindanao in favor of limited autonomy.

Misuari was subsequently named governor of the autonomous region and many MNLF fighters were integrated into the police and military forces under the peace pact. However, he had a falling out with the government of President Gloria Arroyo in 2001, which did not back his reelection bid.

Misuari then led his forces in simultaneously attacking government targets in the port city of Zamboanga and on the island of Jolo, leaving some 100 people dead.

He fled to Malaysia but was arrested there and deported.

The former guerrilla leader and professor retains influence over Muslim leaders in the southern Philippines, where a splinter MNLF group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, is said to be harboring foreign militants from the Jemaah Islamiyah extremist group.

Misuari also still has armed followers in Jolo where US military forces are due to begin humanitarian projects next month.

Last week Misuari issued an order from detention, telling his followers in Jolo not to attack the Americans and to cooperate with their humanitarian efforts. — AFP, Jose Rodel Clapano