Fiscals ask court: Junk Ampatuan grandson's plea to dismiss case

MANILA, Philippines - Prosecutors are asking the court to junk the plea of a member of the Ampatuan clan to dismiss his indictment for the Maguindanao massacre.

Lawyer Cesar Angelo Chavez said Datu Anwar “Datu Ipi” Ampatuan, a grandson of former Maguindanao governor and primary suspect in the massacre Andal Ampatuan Sr., evaded arrest for more than two years until he was apprehended in March at a hospital after he was hurt in a bombing in Maguindanao.

In opposing Datu Anwar’s plea, filed last month before Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes of the Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 221, the prosecution said if the suspect were not in a hospital, “he would still continue to be in hiding, thus avoiding the prosecution of 57 counts of murder.”

Datu Anwar is now partially paralyzed and detained at Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig City.