A DELEGATION from the European Parliament sub-committee on human rights yesterday visited former senator Leila De Lima in her detention room inside the PNP national headquarters at Camp Crame to check on her condition.
The PNP said the delegation was led by Isabel Wiseler-Lima, Karsten Lucke, Hannah Neumann, Silvia Sardone, Ryszard Czarnecki, Miguel Urban Crespo and Ana Isabela Sanchez Ruiz.
The group was briefed on jail protocols before they were escorted to De Lima at the PNP Custodial Center for a meeting, which the PNP said was authorized by the Department of Foreign Affairs through a note verbale signed by Office of European Affairs officer-in-charge Rosario Lemque.
The PNP said the visit was also allowed by the courts trying De Lima on drug charges.
In December, a senior adviser of US Democrat Senator Dick Durbin also visited De Lima inside her cell, more than two months after she was held hostage during a failed escape attempt of three terrorists who were also detained at the custodial center. The three inmates died after engaging police officers in a firefight.
De Lima has been detained since February 2017 on drug-related charges. She has denied the charges which she said were part of the Duterte administration’s political persecution strategy to silence her after she opposed its violent war on drugs.
Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla, in an ambush media interview after also meeting with the EU lawmakers, said the case of the former senator was brought up, alongside a discussion on the proliferation of fake news in the country.
Remulla said he told them the lawmakers that the government will not pose any objection if De Lima’s camp files a petition for habeas corpus before the Muntinlupa regional trial court handling the drug-related cases against her. — With Ashzel Hachero
