Philippine security forces arrested a key suspect who has been charged in the massacre of 57 people last year, the country’s worst incident of political violence, after he was shot by rival clan members, police said yesterday.
Edris Kasan, who has a 200,000 pesos (US$4,400) bounty for his capture, was arrested early yesterday after he was admitted to a hospital in a southern island with gunshot wounds.
Police spokesman Agrimero Cruz said Kasan, who has been on the run since he was charged late last year in connection with the massacre, would be moved to a military hospital.
“He’s under heavy guard at a hospital after we confirmed his identity,” Cruz said, adding that Kasan had checked into hospital with a false name.
“Some witnesses were also brought to the hospital to make sure we got the real suspect. We will move him to a hospital at an army base for security reasons,” Cruz said.
Kasan was wounded in a gun battle with a rival clan in Datu Hoffer town, Cruz said.
Security forces have stepped up efforts to locate and arrest more than 130 suspects still at-large, including 20 members of the powerful Ampatuan clan, who were charged with the mass killings. Only 62 are in custody.
Filipinos expect the government of Philippine President Benigno Aquino III to be more aggressive than the previous administration in prosecuting the case. A total 197 people had been charged in court for the murders.
The trial of the main suspect, Andal Ampatuan Jr, has been suspended since February, held up by defense motions including one seeking to disqualify the judge. Ampatuan and 17 of his followers had pleaded not guilty at the start of the trial.
The Ampatuan clan had ruled southern Maguindanao province on Mindanao for a decade. The massacre happened on Nov. 23, when about 100 armed men attacked a convoy on their to way to witness the filing of nomination papers for a member of the Mangudadatu family, rivals to the Ampatuans, to stand in local elections.
The armed men also killed people who were not in the convoy but had seen the attacks, and then tried to bury the bodies and their vehicles in mass graves. The dead included about 30 journalists.
Former Nicaraguan president Violeta Chamorro, who brought peace to Nicaragua after years of war and was the first woman elected president in the Americas, died on Saturday at the age of 95, her family said. Chamorro, who ruled the poor Central American country from 1990 to 1997, “died in peace, surrounded by the affection and love of her children,” said a statement issued by her four children. As president, Chamorro ended a civil war that had raged for much of the 1980s as US-backed rebels known as the “Contras” fought the leftist Sandinista government. That conflict made Nicaragua one of
BOMBARDMENT: Moscow sent more than 440 drones and 32 missiles, Volodymyr Zelenskiy said, in ‘one of the most terrifying strikes’ on the capital in recent months A nighttime Russian missile and drone bombardment of Ukraine killed at least 15 people and injured 116 while they slept in their homes, local officials said yesterday, with the main barrage centering on the capital, Kyiv. Kyiv City Military Administration head Tymur Tkachenko said 14 people were killed and 99 were injured as explosions echoed across the city for hours during the night. The bombardment demolished a nine-story residential building, destroying dozens of apartments. Emergency workers were at the scene to rescue people from under the rubble. Russia flung more than 440 drones and 32 missiles at Ukraine, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy
COMPETITION: The US and Russia make up about 90 percent of the world stockpile and are adding new versions, while China’s nuclear force is steadily rising, SIPRI said Most of the world’s nuclear-armed states continued to modernize their arsenals last year, setting the stage for a new nuclear arms race, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said yesterday. Nuclear powers including the US and Russia — which account for about 90 percent of the world’s stockpile — had spent time last year “upgrading existing weapons and adding newer versions,” researchers said. Since the end of the Cold War, old warheads have generally been dismantled quicker than new ones have been deployed, resulting in a decrease in the overall number of warheads. However, SIPRI said that the trend was likely
Indonesia’s Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki yesterday erupted again with giant ash and smoke plumes after forcing evacuations of villages and flight cancelations, including to and from the resort island of Bali. Several eruptions sent ash up to 5km into the sky on Tuesday evening to yesterday afternoon. An eruption on Tuesday afternoon sent thick, gray clouds 10km into the sky that expanded into a mushroom-shaped ash cloud visible as much as 150km kilometers away. The eruption alert was raised on Tuesday to the highest level and the danger zone where people are recommended to leave was expanded to 8km from the crater. Officers also
RSS