Dutch activist Thomas Van Beersum has been detained by the Bureau of Immigration, Bagong Alyansang Makabayan secretary general Renato Reyes Jr. said.
“We strongly denounce the detention of Dutch activist Thomas van Beersum by the Bureau of Immigration. We demand his immediate release as he is already on his way out of the country. We demand that his rights be respected, that he not be paraded like a criminal and that he is allowed to confer with his lawyers from (National Union of People’s Lawyers) led by Atty. Rey Cortez and the different human rights groups,” Bayan said in a post on Reyes’s Facebook page.
A photograph of Van Beersum arguing with a police officer at a protest went viral in July. The police officer, nicknamed The Crying Cop, was shown in tears after the incident.
The Dutch activist “came to the Philippines to learn about the situation of impunity towards human rights in the Philippines. Now he is at the receiving end of state-sponsored human rights violations,” Bayan said.
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Photo: Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment
