THE PHILIPPINES. HUMAN RIGHTS AGENCY: POLICE EXECUTED SUSPECTS

the Philippines' human rights commission recommended a criminal investigation for the alleged summary executions of several terror suspects by police assaulting a prison after a botched escape attempt.
The Commission on Human Rights said the Department of Justice should determine the liability of police officers and their superiors, including former Interior Secretary Angelo Reyes, who headed a crisis committee that gave the order to assault the prison.
The commission found that 22 suspected members of the al-Qaida-linked Abu Sayyaf group were killed when a special police unit assaulted the prison in suburban Taguig city on March 15, 2005, to end a daylong standoff after officers foiled a mass jailbreak. Four guards and one police officer were also killed.
"They were helpless," human rights commission member Wilhelm Soriano said of the inmates. "They were summarily executed as they were killed without any reason and were not given the chance to defend themselves."