MANILA, Philippines?Sajid Islam Ampatuan claims the multiple murder charges against him and his family in connection with the Maguindanao massacre are politically motivated to dislodge their clan from power in the province.

Ampatuan, one of the sons of Maguindanao Gov. Andal Ampatuan, Sr., said in a counter-affidavit filed with the Department of Justice which is conducting a preliminary investigation to determine whether to take the case to court for trial that the charges filed by the Philippine National Police against him were based on ?fabricated charges.?

?(The) present charge had been fabricated to emasculate me from my supporters and decimate my family for purely political purposes,? Sajid Ampatuan said in the sworn statement. ?This is a mere power grab which is unacceptable in a democratic society.?

Sajid Ampatuan did not identify, however, the people he claimed plotting the ouster of his well-entrenched family from influential positions in Maguindanao and in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

?As regards the fabricated statement made by a certain Kenny Dalandag that on Nov. 22, 2009, he saw the ?mag-aamang Ampatuan (Ampatuan and his sons)? in a meeting at the house of my father, Datu Andal Ampatuan, Sr., ? the same is utterly false,? Sajid Ampatuan said.

He said he was in Shariff Saydona Mustapha town on Nov. 22 and later in the day at his own residence when the supposed meeting happened. It was in that meeting that the plan to attack the Mangudadatu family was allegedly hatched.

On Nov. 23, armed men blocked the Mangudadatu?s convoy that was en route to the provincial capital of Shariff Aguak file Esmael Mangudadatu?s certificate of candidacy for Maguindanao governor. Shortly afterwards, his wife Bai Genalin and several other relatives along with lawyers and dozens of journalists killed on a grassy hill and buried in mass graves.

?Even assuming that I was present in said alleged meeting (which I vehemently denied), this alone may not be used as basis to indict any person for such criminal charges,? Sajid Ampatuan said.

?Again, my name was not even mentioned by Dalandag as among those who did anything in the meeting. Plainly, the present complaint against me has no merit,? he added.

The four members of the Ampatuan family that decided to answer the allegations against them in the preliminary investigation proceedings at the Department of Justice are all elective officials of Maguindanao.

All of them claim that there was no evidence presented by the PNP-CIDG alleging any specific act on their part leading to the Maguindanao massacre.

Aside from Sajid Ampatuan, the other Ampatuans who decided to submit to the preliminary investigation proceedings were his brothers, Gov. Zaldy Ampatuan of the Autonomous Region in Muslime Mindnao, Mayor Anwar Ampatuan of Shariff Aguak, and their cousin Vice Gov. Akmad Ampatuan of Maguindanao.

Zaldy Ampatuan said in his affidavit that he was in Davao City on the day of the alleged meeting at their father?s house in Shariff Aguak.

On the day of the massacre, Zaldy Ampatuan said he was in Malacañang in a meeting with President Macapagal-Arroyo.

?We were then discussing the manner by which the national government, in cooperation with the ARMM, will be able to resolve the conflict in the province of Sulu,? Zaldy Ampatuan said in his counter-affidavit.

He said Sulu Representatives Yusoph Jikiri and Munir Arbison were with him and the President during the meeting.

The clan patriarch, Maguindanao Gov. Andal Ampatuan, Sr., and so far the lone accused in the massacre case, Datu Unsay Mayor Andal Ampatuan, Jr., both waived their right to answer the complaints against them through counter-affidavits in the preliminary investigation.