MANILA. A party-list representative whose name has been linked to the explosion in the Batasan Pambansa earlier this month that killed a lawmaker and four other persons said the suspect who named him as the brains behind the attack had been tortured by police.

Taking to the floor of the House of Representatives, Anak-Mindanao Representative Mujiv Hataman claimed former Tuburan mayor Hajarun Jamiri had been tortured -- including having his genitals allegedly electrocuted -- to implicate the solon and his older brother, Jim, as the masterminds of the November 13 attack in which Basilan Representative Wahab Akbar was killed.

But Senior Superintendent Asher Dolina, chief of the National Capital Region office of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) denied Hataman's claims, telling INQUIRER.net that Jamiri had executed his affidavit naming the Hatamans as the brains behind the bombing of his own free will and in the presence of a lawyer.

Jamiri was released from detention Monday night after posting bail for charges of illegal firearms possession filed against him. He was arrested in follow-up operations in Manila after police arrested three suspects in a raid in Payatas, Quezon City, in which three other suspects were killed in a shootout.

In his speech, Hataman noted that Jamiri had refused to affirm his own sworn statement when he appeared last week at a preliminary investigation conducted by the Department of Justice.

"Jamiri refused to affirm the statement in front of the prosecutors, saying that those were not his words, that it was those who detained him who prepared the sworn statement and he was just forced to sign it," Hataman said.

"And according to the relatives of Jamiri, he was tortured, electrocuted -- he was not only beaten up, he was not only punched in the stomach and all over the body, his nails and hands were not only squeezed -- his genitals were also electrocuted to make him say that Congressman Hataman and Jim Hataman are involved in the explosion," he said in Filipino.

The Anak-Mindanao solon also decried what he claimed is a "campaign to smear my name and to cast more doubt on my person and character" waged in the media, citing an alleged "white paper" being circulated that tags him as a "Muslim activist and radical thinker, who is aligned with [the] political opposition."

Despite this, Hataman said he remains confident an impartial and thorough investigation would eventually clear him of any links to the bombing.

At the same time, however, he wondered how a thorough investigation could come to pass when, he claimed, the police merely relied on the statements of suspects, allegedly extracted through torture.

"Up to the last minute, I and my family held on to [our] trust and confidence [in] the PNP's [Philippine National Police] investigation. But I appeared to be wrong," he lamented.

"Merit has been given to words of people who [have] no direct knowledge of the incident and whose motives in implicating me are obviously for their own interest," he added.

Hataman called for the creation of an independent investigative body that would look not only into the bombing but also how police have been conducting their investigation into the incident.

But Dolina dismissed Hataman's claims as an attempt to distract investigators.

"That is what they are expected to say to distract us from investigating. Jamiri gave his statement [of] his own will and we also have witnesses to prove he was not tortured," Dolina said.

"Jamiri should speak for himself," he added.

But Dolina acknowledged that Jamiri said the contents of the affidavit he signed on November 20 were not true.

"He suddenly retracted when he had a new lawyer," said Dolina.

Jamiri's case was initially handled by lawyer Confessor Sansano.