CHR urges filing of charges vs AFP, PNP in 'torture' of Moro activist

The country’s human rights body urged authorities to file charges against police and military personnel for the torture and illegal detention of a 50-year-old Moro activist, a year after the victim was reported missing and subsequently found in a military camp. In a resolution dated Wednesday, the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) asked the Department of Justice to file criminal and administrative charges against government agents who arrested, illegally detained and tortured Mohammad Diya Hamja, a human rights activist earlier suspected of being a member of the Abu Sayaff Group. Human rights group Karapatan had earlier sought the assistance of the CHR following Hamja’s abduction by armed men on Nov. 28, 2008 in Taguig. [See: 50-year-old Moro activist found in Camp Crame] On that day, Hamja was apprehended by armed men in civilian clothes and forced into a white van after attending afternoon prayers at the Blue Mosque along Mindanao Ave, in Maharlika Village. Held incommunicado Initial reports of the CHR’s investigation team determined that Hamja was held incommunicado for six days during which he was believed to have been tortured, until the team accidentally found him in the custody of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group at Camp Crame on Dec. 4, 2008. In his sworn statement, Hamja also narrated that he was grabbed by the neck and blindfolded when he was arrested, his head was covered in plastic, and that he was also physically maltreated and electrocuted, which was subsequently confirmed by a CHR physician. The victim also declared he was not allowed to contact anyone during his six-day ordeal. In a public inquiry initiated by the CHR in December 2008, CIDG National Capital Region chief Police Superintendent Isagani Nerez admitted that Hamja’s arrest was a joint operation of the the CIDG, Naval Intelligence and Security Force (NISF) and the National Intelligence and Coordinating Agency (NICA). The arresting team as identified in the hearing was composed by Nerez, Senior Inspector Wilfredo Sy, Senior Police Officer Cresendo Molina, and Police Officer Darwin Linatoc. The NISF, however, refused to participate in the inquiry and only submitted a written manifesto denying involvement beyond providing intelligence information. Hamja was under the custody of the NISF from the date of his arrest up to December 2, 2008, until he was transferred to the CIDG where he was held for two days more. During all these, there was neither proper documentation of the arrest nor a turnover receipt, according to the CHR. ‘Classic abduction’ “Hamja's arrest bears all the hallmarks of a classic abduction, not a legitimate arrest," the CHR said in its findings following the inquiry, adding that the irregularities with which the victim was arrested and detained render operation “utterly unlawful and illegal". The CHR also faulted the CIDG for bringing Hamja to a regional trial court eight days after his supposed arrest, instead of just after 36 hours as mandated by law. Hamja should have also been brought immediately to the nearest police station or jail instead of to the NISF facility as dictated by the police’s Manual of Operations. Among the criminal cases that the CHR wants lodged against members of the arresting team as well as their immediate supervisors include maltreatment of prisoners, physical injuries, coercion and torture, on top of appropriate administrative charges. The commission’s Legal and Investigation Office is also set to file perjury charges against Sy, for failing to truthfully disclose in the inquiry the length of Hamja’s stay with the CIDG. It is also directing officials of the NISF to explain their refusal to participate in the inquiry. “The DOJ and the proper agencies will have our findings, and we will remain vigilant to ensure that the process hereafter takes its due course especially in the DOJ," CHR chairperson Leila De Lima said in a statement on the resolution posted on the commission’s website. She added that this is just the beginning of the commission’s “doggedness", promising more decisions on from the CHR on human rights cases throughout the year. “This Resolution of the Hamja Case is only the beginning, more will follow, and we fully expect to sustain our efforts to enforce human rights protection. The Resolution in the Parañaque case involving the deaths of innocent civilians, including the father and daughter De Veras, is also due for release any day now," she said. De Lima was referring to Alfonso de Vera and her seven-year-old daughter Lia who were among the sixteen civilians killed in a shootout in Parañaque City supposedly between police and robbers. [See: Multiple murder raps filed vs 29 cops over Parañaque shooutout] - Jerrie M. Abella/JV, GMANews.TV