A committee of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) renewed its call for detained former Senator Leila de Lima to be released adding that it would continue observing and monitoring her trial.
A decision adopted by the Committee on the Human Rights of Parliamentarians called for the immediate release of de Lima, for the legal proceedings against her to be dropped, and for authorities to take the necessary action.
It also requested that an IPU trial observer be allowed to continue monitoring and reporting on respect for the fair-trial standards in cases before branches 205 and 256 of the Regional Trial Court in Muntinlupa City. “The Committee on the Human Rights of Parliamentarians expresses grave concern that six years after she was first charged, Ms. de Lima continues to languish in detention, even after the key witness against her in one of the two remaining cases stated that he had been forced by the former executive authorities to testify against her,” it read.inside the New Bilibid Prison during her stint as Justice Secretary.
Key witnesses — confessed drug lord Kerwin Espinosa and former Bureau of Corrections officer-in-charge Rafael Ragos — recanted their testimonies against de Lima.during a Senate joint committee, saying that he was “coerced, pressured, intimidated, and seriously threatened” by the police to implicate the senator., adding that then-Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre threatened him into making false allegations against her.
Before her detainment, de Lima had been vocal against the Duterte administration’s war on illegal drugs and said she was
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