The Court of Appeals has ordered the release of a suspect in a drug case whom police have been holding for the last five years without a formal case.
In a 19-page decision, the apellate court ordered the release of 25 year-old Joanne Urbina from police custody. The court added that the Philippine National Police has violated the suspect’s right to due process and a speedy trial.
“More than five years of detention, without valid information filed in court, is unreasonable; it is intolerable; it is shockingly unimaginable. It smacks of persecution rather than prosecution and pierces through the very essence of fairness and justice,” an Inquirer report quoted the court decision.
