Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, June 17) — Several United Nations (UN) experts have expressed “grave disappointment” over a local court’s recent decision to reject the bail plea of former Senator Leila de Lima and renewed their call for her immediate release.
“We are deeply concerned that after six years of arbitrary detention, Leila de Lima will now continue to be detained after her bail application was denied on 7 June 2023,” they said in a joint statement dated June 16.
The UN experts include Priya Gopalan, Matthew Gillett, Ganna Yudkivska, Miriam Estrada-Castillo and Mumba Malila of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention; and Dorothy Estrada Tanck, Ivana Radačić, Elizabeth Broderick, Meskerem Geset Techane and Melissa Upreti of the Working Group on Discrimination Against Women and Girls.
Special rapporteurs Irene Khan, Reem Alsalem, Morris Tidball-Binz, and Margaret Satterthwaite were also those that issued the statement.
“It is high time for the administration of President Marcos Jr. to close this case once and for all, provide compensation and other reparations, and investigate the circumstances that allowed this to happen in the first place,” they said.
In a 2018 opinion, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention said it considers De Lima’s detention as “arbitrary.” The UN experts believe the charges against her were \”a result of her personal beliefs and public statements\” against the bloody drug war launched by former President Rodrigo Duterte.
De Lima, who has repeatedly maintained her innocence, has been accused of allowing the illegal drug trade in the New Bilibid Prison when she was justice secretary. She was also accused of financing her 2016 senatorial campaign using drug money from inmates.
She has been acquitted in two of her three drug cases.
