MANILA, Philippines--A Philippine communist leader said Thursday a Dutch court's decision to release him from custody while under investigation for two killings in his homeland supports his claims of innocence.

Jose Maria Sison, who has lived in self-imposed exile in the Netherlands since 1987, is accused of ordering the killings of two people in his party.

Police arrested him in August in the central Dutch town of Utrecht.

A Dutch court ruled in September that Sison should be freed because of insufficient evidence, a ruling an appeals court upheld on Wednesday.

The decision could have far-reaching consequences on the validity of the case being built by prosecutors, Sison said Thursday in a statement.

The ruling "categorically states that there is no direct evidence to link me to the aforesaid killings and that I am not a criminal perpetrator in any sense," he said.

The appeals court decision does not preclude Sison from being prosecuted on murder charges. The court only rules on the request to keep someone in custody, while the public prosecutor's office decides whether to press charges.

Sison, known also as Armando Liwanag, is founding chairman of the Communist Party of the Philippines and its armed unit, the New People's Army (NPA) which has been waging a Maoist rebellion since 1969.

Dutch prosecutors said Sison, 68, ordered the assassinations of former NPA leaders Romulo Kintanar and Arturo Tabara in 2003 and 2004 respectively. Both men, who belonged to Sison's inner circle, were victims of what the Philippine military says was an internal purge.

Under Dutch law, Sison can be charged with ordering a murder, even if it is committed abroad, prosecutors say. Sison was arrested on suspicion and could be charged after Dutch authorities complete their investigation.

The Manila government has hailed Sison's arrest as a key milestone in its fight against the CPP and the NPA, while Sison has accused them of supplying false information to Dutch prosecutors.