A HUMAN rights worker who was arrested by police in last year’s Bloody Sunday operation in Calabarzon was cleared by a Calamba, Laguna court yesterday of charges of illegal possession of firearms and explosives.
Lawyer Jossa Deinla of the National Union of Peoples Lawyers said Calamba City Regional Trial Court Branch 37 Presiding Judge Caesae Buenagua granted the demurrer filed by 62-year -old Nimfa Lanzanas, effectively junking the case against her.
A demurrer is a pleading that the defense files to seek an outright dismissal of a case based on the weakness of prosecution evidence.
The court ordered the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology to release Lanzanas from detention.
The Bloody Sunday operation led to the deaths of nine activists and the arrest of six others.
Lanzanas earlier questioned her arrest, saying the place searched by the raiding team was not covered by the search warrant issued by Manila Executive Judge Jason Zapanta.
She also claimed the police and their alleged informant made deliberate falsehoods during the application for search warrants, and accused the raiding team of planting guns and explosives recovered during the operation in Barangay Sampiruhan, Calamba City.
“This Court finds that the police officers conducting the search failed to observe the strict procedures laid down by the rules in the implementation of the search warrant,” part of the 18-page ruling said.
The court said the searchers were not accompanied by Lanzanas during the “simultaneous search” nor did they ask her to designate a representative in her favor to witness the search in violation of the rules.
