Zaldy lawyer 'not impressed' with SC decision on trial transfer

A lawyer of Zaldy Ampatuan, a principal suspect in the Maguindanao massacre case, on Wednesday described as "deplorable" a Supreme Court decision denying a request to transfer the trial from Taguig City to Quezon City. Lawyer Firdausi Abbas, a spokesman and one of the legal counsels for Zaldy, said they earlier requested the Supreme Court to order that proceedings to be moved back to Quezon City and make it more accessible to the public. The high court, however, denied their request. "What we find deplorable is the non-action of the Supreme Court... which denied the petition of the Ampatuans to have the case transferred to Quezon City," he told reporters during a break at Wednesday's hearing. Abbas said conditions at the Quezon City Jail Annex inside Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig City were comparable to the Guantanamo detention facility in the United States, which is infamous for reports of alleged torture and sexual degradation of prisoners. "The trial here is as worse as the trial in the Guantanamo Bay," he said. The lawyer criticized the strict security procedures being observed inside the police camp in Taguig City, saying such measures violate "basic human rights." "Nobody can just come in even if you are a lawyer. Also, the humiliation of being frisked and that is not correct," Abbas said. He also criticized the Supreme Court ruling banning the bringing in of recording and other digital devices during trial. Abbas said they "intend to bring these matters to a higher forum." The massacre trial was originally held inside the Philippine National Police headquarters inside Camp Crame in Quezon City. Proceedings were later moved to Camp Bagong Diwa, closer to where the more than 90 arrested suspects are detained. In fact, the hearings are held inside a makeshift courtroom just below the massacre suspects' detention cells. Zaldy was earlier transferred from Cell Number 1, which he used to share with his father and brothers, to Cell Number 6, still inside the QC Jail Annex. Zaldy, a number of his relatives, local policemen from Maguindanao, and alleged private militiamen of the Ampatuans are facing 57 counts of murder for the Nov. 23, 2009 massacre of 57 people, including 32 journalists. - KBK, GMA News