Philippines rights body’s drug war probe bolsters police abuse allegations
The fee mentioned it reviewed 579 incidents of “drug-frelated extrajudicial killings” and violence from 2016 to February 2020, 451 of which had been allegedly linked to police operations and concerned 705 victims.
Data of a minimum of 87 people confirmed they sustained a number of gunshot wounds, often on the top, chest, trunk and stomach, whereas blunt pressure was used on some, CHR mentioned.
“The Supreme Court docket, in a choice on the plea of the self-defense of regulation enforcement, dominated that the placement of a deceased aggressor’s gunshot wounds might counsel an intent to kill and never simply defend oneself,” CHR mentioned in a press release.
Duterte’s workplace didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark, whereas the police mentioned they are going to look into the CHR report.
Duterte has defended the police and argued that every one these killed had been drug sellers who resisted arrest.
The fee mentioned cops concerned in 77 incidents it investigated had been beneficial to be “awarded, rewarded or acknowledged.”
The Philippines has come underneath strain from the United Nations to analyze allegations of systematic murders of drug suspects, and the Worldwide Felony Court docket lately introduced it could examine Duterte’s anti-drug marketing campaign.