Word: verdicts
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...witnesses as they recounted tales of murder, torture and abductions in the night committed against suspected subversives during six years of military rule from 1976 to 1982. But a heavy silence fell over the room as six appeals-court judges filed in last week to deliver their verdict on the nine military leaders who had been charged with responsibility for what Argentines now call the "dirty war" against leftist terrorism...
...jolting news capped an especially dramatic week in Philippine politics. At 8:30 a.m. on Monday, 150 people crammed into a Manila courtroom to hear a clerk and two interpreters read the verdict in the trial of 26 men charged with conspiracy in the assassination of Ninoy Aquino as he stepped off a plane at the Manila international airport on Aug. 21, 1983. The opinion of the three-judge court ran to 90 pages and took more than two hours to recite, but the verdict boiled down to two words: not guilty. "Thank God, it's all over," said...
Last week's verdict rejected the conclusions of a civilian fact-finding board that a military conspiracy was behind Aquino's murder. Instead, the court supported the military's contention that Rolando Galman, an alleged Communist gunman, had somehow managed to penetrate the 1,199-man security cordon at the airport that day and shot Aquino on the tarmac before being felled by a fatal barrage from nearby guards. The justices dismissed all evidence that buttressed the prosecution's argument that Aquino was instead slain by a soldier on the jetliner's service stairway...
...widely expected that the defendants would be acquitted by the three Marcos-appointed judges, so the verdict provoked few demonstrations and no violence. But opposition leaders responded to the verdict with anger. "The (court) just committed triple murder," said Agapito ("Butz") Aquino, 47, the slain leader's younger brother. "Not only did it kill Ninoy and Galman all over again. It also killed the country's judiciary." Said Cory Aquino, refusing to consider the matter of her husband's death closed: "My No. 1 suspect is Mr. Marcos...
Even in Washington, where Marcos enjoys some of his strongest support, the official response was harsh. Under Secretary of State Michael Armacost said that the verdict was "impossible to reconcile with the conclusions of the widely respected (civilian board)." He also expressed concern over Ver's return to his post, a move that the Reagan Administration has openly opposed. Said Armacost: "It raises questions as to whether factional loyalties or professional accomplishments will determine advancement in the Philippine armed forces...