GR NO. L-12686 PEOPLE vs HADJI, ET.AL.

DATE: 24 October 1963

Respondent Hadju, together with other accused, were charged with various crimes including
rebellion, multiple murder and multiple injuries, kidnapping with murder and attempted murder.

Respondent appeals to his conviction on the crime of kidnapping with murder and attempted
FACTS murder which he was sentenced to death.

It was alleged that Defendant kidnapped 2 men whom he suspected was the reason for the
disappearance of his 2 followers. Defendant contends that the kidnapping with murder was
committed in furtherance of sedition, hence, should be absorbed by the latter.
WHETHER OR NOT THE CRIME OF KIDNAPPING WITH MURDER CAN BE ABSORBED
ISSUE/S BY SEDITION?
A: No.
The court ruled that kidnapping with murder cannot be absorbed by Sedition.

Sedition is a different offense as compared to murder. edition is a crime against public order;
murder is a crime against persons. Sedition is a crime directed against the existence of the
State, the authority of the government, and the general public tranquility; murder is a crime
directed against the lives of individuals. Sedition in its more general sense is the raising of
commotions or disturbances in the state; murder at common law is where a person of sound
mind and discretion unlawfully kills any human being, in the peace of the sovereign, with
malice aforethought, express or implied.
HELD
Although in rebellion the acts of violence were deemed absorbed, in Sedition offenses such as
murder are distinct and independent acts separable from the former.

In the case at bar, the acts of the Defendant in relation to kidnapping and murder were in no
way related in the commission of the crime of Sedition. The killing committed was purely
motivated by personal vengeance.

RULING: Guilty for the crime of Kidnapping complexed with murder.