Maguindanao massacre: how a manservant, a backhoe and a flurry of texts helped convict the Ampatuans
- Last week, a Philippine court jailed 29 members and associates of the powerful Ampatuan clan for life for the 2009 Maguindanao massacre
- The family’s legal team had been convinced their clients would walk free – here we explore three key pieces of evidence that helped secure the convictions
This despite authorities recovering more than 100 empty shells from a variety of assault rifles at the scene of the crime, alongside 57 mutilated, bullet-ridden bodies.
Which must have come as a shock to the legal team of Andal “Unsay” Ampatuan Jnr, former heir apparent to the powerful Ampatuan clan who witnesses say led the killing spree, which targeted the family and entourage of political rival Esmael Mangudadatu.
Unsay’s former lawyer, Raymond Fortun, had told the media on the eve of the verdict that his client would walk free as “if you’re not able to connect the bullet to the gun to the gunman, in a murder case, you’re not going to win”.
Yet Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes had no need to connect the guns to the gunmen – she sentenced Unsay and 28 other defendants to life imprisonment without parole after finding them guilty “beyond reasonable doubt”.