MANILA, Philippines -- After 17 days of detention at a Dutch penitentiary facility where “I felt like living in a toilet,” Jose Maria Sison feels relieved to be free again, is confident his case would be dismissed, and plans to sue Dutch authorities.

“I'm overjoyed that I’m out of solitary confinement,” Sison said Friday from his home in Utrecht, the Netherlands. “It was humiliating to be subjected to solitary confinement and tough interrogation under overheated lamps.”

The founding chair of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) had been held since Aug. 28 at the Scheveningen Prison at The Hague for allegedly ordering the killings of two communist rivals.

The Hague court ordered his release Thursday, saying “the files do not include sufficient indications that the accused, while living in the Netherlands, committed the offenses he is charged with, in deliberate and close cooperation with the perpetrators in the Philippines.”

The court decision does not preclude him from being prosecuted on murder charges. The 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.

“My cell was 3.5 meters long by 2.5 meters wide. It was 3.5 meters high. It was cramped. I felt like living in a toilet,” Sison told Manila reporters in a phone-patch interview.

Reminiscent of martial law

He said the solitary confinement was broken only by five hours of interrogation every day.

“During my confinement, I remembered those five years that I was placed in solitary confinement under military custody” during the martial law era in the Philippines, he said.

The phone-patch interview with Sison took place at the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) headquarters in Quezon City.

Sison was accused of ordering the killings of Romulo Kintanar in January 2003 and Arturo Tabara, along with his son-in-law Stephen Ong, in September 2004 in Quezon City.

He said these were “trumped-up charges.”

With his release, Sison said he gained “some confidence” in the Dutch legal system.

“I have the opportunity to prove my innocence and continue to benefit from fair play. I feel somehow vindicated in choosing the Netherlands as my place of refuge from persecution in the Philippines,” he said.

Sison said he was released because the prosecution failed to provide “direct evidence” linking him to the killings. He said he was confident the court would throw out the case against him.

He also said that once his case was over he could file countercharges against Dutch authorities for what he called his illegal arrest.

Sison has protested his inclusion on terrorist lists of the United States and some European countries.

Kintanar’s widow

Romulo Kintanar’s widow, Joy, sounded unfazed by the Dutch court’s action.

“I understand the battle will not be easy,” she said in a text message. “The case against Joma [Sison] continues and I can wait for the verdict no matter how long and hard it takes. The rule of law, truth and justice must prevail in the end.”

Wim de Bruin, spokesperson for the national prosecutor’s office in the Netherlands, said Sison was not yet off the hook.

De Bruin said the decision of the court simply meant that there was no reason to keep Sison further in police custody.

“For the prosecutor’s office, the investigation will continue. Sison is still a suspect,” De Bruin said.

But for now, “he is free to go wherever he wants to go,” he said.

Dutch legal system

A Dutch court official who spoke to the Inquirer on the phone on condition of anonymity said the “in camera” decision merely focused on the question of whether there was sufficient evidence to keep Sison in detention beyond 14 days.

“‘In camera’ merely rules if it’s right to keep someone in detention without looking at the evidence,” the official said.

Asked for comment on the Dutch court’s decision, US Ambassador to the Philippines Kristie Kenney said: “The Dutch have a very well respected legal judicial system and it cooperates so well with Philippine authorities. I think we’ll let them sort out what this means and what next steps to take.”

On the television news channel ANC, National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales said: “What’s happening in the Netherlands is ... purely a Dutch initiative.”

“It’s too early for us to make a judgment as to what is happening there because the process is continuing,” Gonzales said.

The military said it would continue to strengthen its case that Sison that had ordered the killings of his two rivals.

Sison’s release “does not remove the fact that the communist leadership knows something about their purging operations,” said Lt. Col. Bartolome Bacarro, Armed Forces spokesperson.

The chief of the Philippine National Police’s Directorate for Operations, Director Wilfredo Garcia, said they were saddened by the release of Sison. “But we respect the decision of the Dutch [court],” he said.

Different standards

Garcia also said: “The Dutch authorities might not have seen that there was a deliberate action by Joma in ordering the killings. Their standards or elements of crime are different.”

The Communist Party of the Philippines lauded Sison’s release.

In a statement, party spokesperson Gregorio Rosal said: “The web of lies that they tried to weave against Ka Joma was so utterly depraved and incredulous that it failed to convince the Dutch judges.”

In a rally in Manila, some 300 members of the militant group Anakbayan and League of the Filipino Students hailed the release of Sison.

The demonstrators gathered in front of the University of Santo Tomas before marching to Liwasang Bonifacio.

“Professor Sison’s release is a victory for all freedom-loving youths and the national democratic movement as a whole,” they said in a statement. With reports from Cynthia D. Balana, Christine O. Avendano, Nikko Dizon, Alcuin Papa, Tina G. Santos, Delfin T. Mallari Jr., Inquirer Southern Luzon and Agence France-Presse; with INQUIRER.net