German prosecutors absolve suspect in Boracay killings
BY NESTOR BURGOS JR
BORACAY - German prosecutors have found no cause to charge a German national wanted in the Philippines for the May 2004 murders of three foreigners and a Filipino on Boracay Island, the lawyer of the suspect said yesterday.
Lawyer Jaime Ma. Flores II, legal counsel of Uwe Friesl, said the prosecutors office of Deggendorf, a district in southeast Bavaria in Germany, has dropped the investigation against Friesl based on the evidence provided by the Philippine National Police and results of the investigation conducted by the German Federal Police.
Citing a news clipping e-mailed by Friesl, Flores said Deggendorf public prosecutor Alfons Obermeier had concluded that there was no evidence to link Friesl to the killings based on forensic tests and Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) samples taken from the crime scene. The news story came out in the March 9, 2007 issue of the newspaper Deggendorfer Zeitung.
Chief Supt. Wilfredo Dulay, Western Visayas police director, said they have not received any information on the German prosecutor's decision but said that this will have no bearing on the case against Friesl.
“It has no effect and we will arrest (Friesl) if he is in the Philippines,” Dulay said in a telephone interview.
The Aklan Provincial Prosecutor's Office had charged Friesl and three unidentified suspects with four counts of murder for the killing of his fellow German Anton Forstenhausler, Swiss-born vineyard owner and art collector Manfred Schoeni, Hong Kong-based architect John James Cowperthwaite and Forstenhausler's Filipino maid Erma Sarmiento.
The victims were found dead on May 3, 2004 in separate rooms at Dolce Vita, Forstenhausler's three-story mansion at the top of Mt. Luho in Balabag village in Boracay. The victims bore multiple stab wounds.
The police had theorized that the killings resulted from a botched robbery after they found missing 20 items.
The killings also shocked Boracay residents and expatriates who considered the murders the worst crime to have happened on the island
Friesl managed to slip out of the country on May 2005 to Deggendorf despite a hold order against him issued by the Bureau of Immigration and Deportation and a nationwide police manhunt for his arrest.
The suspect had repeatedly denied the accusation but said he he fled to Germany because the justice system in the Philippines is “too corrupt”.
There is no extradition treaty between the Philippines and Germany but under German laws, a citizen can be prosecuted for committing a crime against a fellow German national even if the crime was committed in other countries.
Flores said the Deggendorf prosecutor's office had concluded that samples of the Friesl's footprints taken from the crime were not enough to evidence to link Friesl to the crime because of the absence of blood from any of the the victims..
Friesl had said that his footprints could have been left in his numerous visits to Forstenhausler's house because he and his fellow German were friends.
A three-member team from the German Federal Police including an expert in crime scene investigation and DNA analysis went to Boracay on November 2005 to conduct their own investigation.
Senior Supt. Jose Jorge Corpuz, then Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) director in Western Visayas went to Germany in 2006 to furnish German authorities with the findings of their investigation.
Flores said he has asked for a copy of the decision of the German prosecutor and plans to file a motion before the Department of Justice to withdraw the information and arrest warrant against Friesl and to conduct a re-investigation of the case.
He said Friesl and his family wants his name cleared because he wants to go to back to Boracay where he had stayed for 14 years until the killings happened.
“The PNP and DOJ now owe it to the victims and Uwe to find and prosecute the real killers who remain at large,” Flores said in a telephone interview.
BY NESTOR BURGOS JR
BORACAY - German prosecutors have found no cause to charge a German national wanted in the Philippines for the May 2004 murders of three foreigners and a Filipino on Boracay Island, the lawyer of the suspect said yesterday.
Lawyer Jaime Ma. Flores II, legal counsel of Uwe Friesl, said the prosecutors office of Deggendorf, a district in southeast Bavaria in Germany, has dropped the investigation against Friesl based on the evidence provided by the Philippine National Police and results of the investigation conducted by the German Federal Police.
Citing a news clipping e-mailed by Friesl, Flores said Deggendorf public prosecutor Alfons Obermeier had concluded that there was no evidence to link Friesl to the killings based on forensic tests and Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) samples taken from the crime scene. The news story came out in the March 9, 2007 issue of the newspaper Deggendorfer Zeitung.
Chief Supt. Wilfredo Dulay, Western Visayas police director, said they have not received any information on the German prosecutor's decision but said that this will have no bearing on the case against Friesl.
“It has no effect and we will arrest (Friesl) if he is in the Philippines,” Dulay said in a telephone interview.
The Aklan Provincial Prosecutor's Office had charged Friesl and three unidentified suspects with four counts of murder for the killing of his fellow German Anton Forstenhausler, Swiss-born vineyard owner and art collector Manfred Schoeni, Hong Kong-based architect John James Cowperthwaite and Forstenhausler's Filipino maid Erma Sarmiento.
The victims were found dead on May 3, 2004 in separate rooms at Dolce Vita, Forstenhausler's three-story mansion at the top of Mt. Luho in Balabag village in Boracay. The victims bore multiple stab wounds.
The police had theorized that the killings resulted from a botched robbery after they found missing 20 items.
The killings also shocked Boracay residents and expatriates who considered the murders the worst crime to have happened on the island
Friesl managed to slip out of the country on May 2005 to Deggendorf despite a hold order against him issued by the Bureau of Immigration and Deportation and a nationwide police manhunt for his arrest.
The suspect had repeatedly denied the accusation but said he he fled to Germany because the justice system in the Philippines is “too corrupt”.
There is no extradition treaty between the Philippines and Germany but under German laws, a citizen can be prosecuted for committing a crime against a fellow German national even if the crime was committed in other countries.
Flores said the Deggendorf prosecutor's office had concluded that samples of the Friesl's footprints taken from the crime were not enough to evidence to link Friesl to the crime because of the absence of blood from any of the the victims..
Friesl had said that his footprints could have been left in his numerous visits to Forstenhausler's house because he and his fellow German were friends.
A three-member team from the German Federal Police including an expert in crime scene investigation and DNA analysis went to Boracay on November 2005 to conduct their own investigation.
Senior Supt. Jose Jorge Corpuz, then Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) director in Western Visayas went to Germany in 2006 to furnish German authorities with the findings of their investigation.
Flores said he has asked for a copy of the decision of the German prosecutor and plans to file a motion before the Department of Justice to withdraw the information and arrest warrant against Friesl and to conduct a re-investigation of the case.
He said Friesl and his family wants his name cleared because he wants to go to back to Boracay where he had stayed for 14 years until the killings happened.
“The PNP and DOJ now owe it to the victims and Uwe to find and prosecute the real killers who remain at large,” Flores said in a telephone interview.
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