Might take a while though...

MANILA, Philippines -- Communist leader Jose Maria Sison has been freed from prison, just hours after a Dutch court ordered his release after it failed to find “sufficient indications” he was involved in the murders of former political colleagues in the Philippines.

But Sison, founder of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and its armed wing the New People’s Army (NPA), is not off the hook yet as the District Court of The Hague does not preclude him from being prosecuted on murder charges.

“The charges are not being dropped. The investigation will continue and the national police still consider him a suspect,” spokesman Wim de Bruin of the national prosecutor's office told INQUIRER.net in a phone interview.

The Dutch court only rules on the request to keep someone in custody, while it is the public prosecutor's office that decides on whether or not to prosecute.

“Now that he is released, there is no need for a trial within three months,” De Bruin said. “It can start longer than three months.”

Sison, who has been living in the Dutch town of Utrecht since 1987, was arrested on August 28 on charges of having ordered the murder, from the Netherlands, of former comrades Arturo Tabara and Romulo Kintanar.

According to Dutch prosecutors, Sison ordered the assassination of Kintanar, former NPA chief, on January 23, 2003. The murder was claimed by the NPA itself in an official publication, they said

Prosecutors are also investigating the role of Sison, 68, in the killings of Tabara and his son-in-law Stephen Ong on September 26, 2006. Tabara was a member of the highest command of the NPA and his assassination was also claimed by the rebel group.

The district court has established that the murders were committed in the Philippines due to disagreements within the CPP and that the decision to commit these crimes was made “within party structures of the CPP.”

Kintanar and Tabara were among rebel leaders who led a faction that split from the mainstream communist movement in the 1990s.

The court also recognized “many indications in the files which support the point of view that the accused is still playing a leading role in the Central Committee of the CPP as well as in the military branch of the CPP, the New People's Army.”

The court ruled however that there was not enough evidence to prove Sison committed the crimes in collusion with others or that he incited others to kill the victims.

De Bruin said the Dutch national prosecutor’s office will appeal the court’s decision to release Sison.

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