Sison Protest III

Today was the third protest in the Netherlands about the arrest of Jose Maria Sison. It was held outside the court house where he had his second appearance, this time to discuss whether he can be held another 90 days on murder charges.

Actually, I probably would stop posting these entries, but now I notice I'm getting a lot of hits on the site from the Philipinnes, so I consider it a public service.

Here, Luis Jalandoni was starting to say that the Dutch have a lot to lose (in terms of international reputation and ultimately Shell oil interests) if information from the police raids in Utrecht is passed on to Philippine authorities and used to persecute NDF sympathizers (or non-sympathizers!) there.

Dutch prosecutors and Sison's lawyer say that won't happen _ but Koppe didn't rule out the chance some information could go through a back door from the Dutch secret service to the CIA to Manila.

The CPP and Sison are on the E.U.'s terrorism list, after all.

This is lawyer Victor Koppe, explaining to Sison supporters what happened inside. Supporters were crowded around to hear what he had to say (but he still couldn't talk about the evidence).
And here are the supporters. I thought most of them were the same as last time, but a handful of new faces, and maybe a few more people actually. Some were standing near a fence showing signs to passing cars. I still don't think most Dutch know this is even happening: they're much more concerned with internal politics right now.