The Philippine Justice completely acquits Leila de Lima, former senator critical of Duterte

June 24 (EUROPA PRESS) –

A court in the Philippine city of Muntinlupa on Monday acquitted former senator Leila de Lima, a figure who gained notoriety in the country for her criticism of former President Rodrigo Duterte, of all charges remaining against her for alleged drug trafficking.

The court, which has closed the case, has thus put an end to the last accusation against De Lima that was still pending before the Philippine courts, after two other criminal cases against him have also been dismissed.

With this, she is completely acquitted seven months after Justice approved her release on bail after being imprisoned since 2017, according to information collected by the Philippine news portal Rappler. However, the former senator has remained in prison waiting for the rest of the cases against her to be resolved.

Thus, Judge Gener Gito, who headed the case, has given approval to the objections presented by the former senator’s defense due to the lack of evidence presented by the Prosecutor’s Office in an attempt to avoid going to trial.

In this third case against her, De Lima was accused of being complicit in “contributing to drug trafficking actions” inside the New Bilibid maximum security prison when she worked as a former Minister of Justice and supervised the management of the penitentiary center. Furthermore, she had been accused of receiving bribes from the prisoners themselves.

His imprisonment has provoked numerous protests and complaints by international organizations defending Human Rights, which have warned that the charges against him were false or derived from political motives.

In 2009, De Lima began an investigation into the alleged extrajudicial executions carried out by the so-called “Davao death squad”, a city where Duterte was mayor for more than two decades.