Leila de Lima, former senator and minister of justice, was arrested in February 2017 on charges of involvement in drug trafficking, something she has vehemently denied. Human rights groups have called the prosecution of de Lima politically motivated as she was a vocal critic of former President Rodrigo Duterte.
Despite the acquittal, she will remain in prison as a trial in another case remains. She has applied for bail and is awaiting the judge’s decision.
Since current President Ferdinand Marcos took office last year, demands have again been raised for de Lima to be released.
Before her arrest in 2017, she spent a decade investigating murders by the so-called “death squad” allegedly ordered by Duterte during his time as mayor of Davao and then at the beginning of his presidency. Duterte we sat in power 2016-2022.
Leila de Lima was previously the country’s human rights commissioner and, from 2010 to 2015, justice minister in Benigno Aquino’s government.
De Lima won a Senate seat in 2016 and became one of the few opposition voices when populist Duterte won a landslide victory.