Fierce Duterte critic acquitted of ‘trumped up’ cost

Former Philippine senator Leila De Lima, one of many fiercest critics of ex-President Rodrigo Duterte, has been acquitted of a prison cost that as a cupboard minister she’d obtained cash from drug sellers.

De Lima, 63, has been in detention for the previous six years and regardless of her acquittal, De Lima is not going to instantly be launched due to one other case pending in court docket.

De Lima was charged in 2017, only a few months after she launched a senate investigation into Duterte’s “warfare on medicine”, throughout which 1000’s of customers and sellers have been killed, many by police or in mysterious circumstances.

She was extensively thought of by human rights teams as a political prisoner.

“Thanks, thanks, extra prayers,” De Lima mentioned as she emerged from the court docket room, in stay streamed feedback.

“I am nonetheless asking for much more prayers for one more case. Wonderful day, wonderful day, starting of my vindication,” she mentioned.

An incensed Duterte had repeatedly accused her of being concerned within the drug commerce throughout televised speeches, which De Lima dismissed as a vendetta.

De Lima, a former justice minister who gained a number of human rights awards, has mentioned the costs have been trumped up and designed to silence her.

In 2021, a court docket dismissed one in every of three medicine instances filed towards De Lima that stemmed from Duterte’s allegations, which led to a number of on-line hate campaigns towards her.

Studying a press release De Lima, her lawyer, Filibon Tacardon, mentioned “I’ve little doubt from very starting I might be acquitted”.

He mentioned De Lima cried as she heard of the acquittal.

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