Rizal’s Trial and Execution (Summary)

Rizal kept a diary containing about his arrest and his last trip back home

(Writings)
I think that God is doing me good by allowing me to .return to the Philippines in order
to disprove so many charges against me. Either they will give me justice and
acknowledge my innocence, and then I shall have all my rights restored, or they will
condemn me to death and I shall have expiated my supposed crime in the eyes of
society. She will forgive later, without any doubt I shall be given justice, and become
one martyr more.

Investigation on Rizal and his Trial

Rizal was charged the crimes of:

 Founding of Illegal Association
 Promoting a Rebellion
 Inducing a Rebellion

Rizal entered a plea of not guilty

Preliminary Investigation (November 20, 1896)

Paciano was tortured

Trial by Military Court

Rizal as the “Soul of the Rebellion”

 Anti-Friar
 Anti Spanish
 Separatist Sentiments

Luis Taviel de Andrade

 Argued that evidence are not legitimate
 Contended that there are no reliable witness neither documents
 Specified that Liga Filipina did not specify and illegal activities

Rizal pleaded in court:

Can anyone believe that I could have organized this whole rebellion in
a single night, in a single meeting where the discussion centered on commerce
and similar topics?...If the few who were present at the meeting had taken me
seriously, they would not have let the Liga die.

Rizal’s Rebellion Charge

 Rizal was able to speak in his defense
 He advised against and disapproved against the revolution
Rizal’s final statement in court

I am innocent. Obviously, there is need for a propitiatory victim for the

happenings of today. In Cuba, that victim has been Maura to those political
reforms the rebellion is ascribed. Here, it is pretended that I am that one. Not
one letter of mine could be presented which might prove the accusation
directed against me. When I was exiled in Dapitan, many persons of 45 some
authority suggested that I escape, and I refused to do so because I thought that
I would not be prosecuted.

Before the outbreak here of the rebellion, I asked the government for
permission to go to Cuba as a volunteer. After the said event, I again solicited
permission from General Blanco. He answered: "If you insist on going to
cuba, I shall grant you the permit." When they sent me to Spain, I got oft the
boat in Singapore, but neither did I try to escape then. I am accused of being
the leader of the revolution. If this were true, I would have been obeyed when
I ordered that arms be laid down. I utterly ignored the plot of conspiracy, one
glaring proof of which is the consultation which Valenzuela had with me and
which appears in the preliminary investigation.