MANILA: It was the first conviction in the Duterte administration’s war on drugs.
The Caloocan City regional trial court branch 125 found police officers Arnel Oares, Jeremias Pereda and Jerwin Cruz guilty of killing 17-year-old Kian Delos Santos during an anti-drug operation August last year in a northern suburb in the capital Manila. They were sentenced to reclusion perpetua, equivalent to 20 to 40 years in prison.
In a press briefing in Malacanang, Duterte’s spokesperson, Salvador Panelo, hailed the court decision, which he called a “triumph of justice” in the country.
“It shows that this country has a robust judicial system,” Panelo said. He also said that the recent development proves the administration’s commitment to go after policemen who abuse their authority and violate the law, an assurance which the president himself made when he first declared his war on drugs.
Panelo said that in Duterte’s first State of the Nation Address when he declared war on drugs, the president made it clear “that those who will abuse their authority will have hell to pay.”
“And in this particular case of Kian, if you’ll recall, it was the president who ordered immediately the relief, the arrest, and the detention of the policemen involved immediately after he viewed the video showing that obviously there was salvage in that incident,” said Panelo, who is also Duterte’s chief legal counsel.
Asked whether the president would be inclined to grant a pardon to the three policemen, Panelo said it would be unlikely.
“You must remember that this is murder. There is intention to kill ... We give the assurance that the president will never tolerate any intentional killings against civilians by the men in uniform,” Panelo said.
“What he said was if you (policemen) do it in accordance with your job in the performance of your duty then I will help you, not when you violate that law,” he said.
Panelo said that the conviction of the three policemen was testament to the fact that the country had a working judicial system, as opposed to the claims of critics that the Duterte administration has no capacity to bring criminals to justice.
He also lauded the government’s prosecution team for the speedy resolution of the case.
“This is a six-month trial. And this is a record in heinous crimes like the case of Kian. It took them only six months to finish the case,” Panelo said.
Meanwhile, Philippine National Police (PNP) Chief Director General Oscar Albayalde said that the Delos Santos case served as a reminder for the rest of PNP personnel to be extra diligent in fulfilling the requirements of the law as they serve and protect the citizenry.
“But this will not cause us to waiver a bit in our resolve to rid this society of the menace of illegal drugs,” Albayalde said, adding that the PNP respects the court’s decision.
Interior Secretary Eduardo Ano said that the conviction of the officers involved in the Delos Santos case should serve as a warning to policemen “to be worthy of their badges and always uphold the law as they perform their duties.”
Human rights groups welcomed the court decision, but at the same time called on the government to step up its efforts in delivering justice for all victims of extrajudicial killings (EJKs) in the country.
“We welcome the trial court’s conviction of Kian’s killers and thank all those who assisted in securing justice in this case — particularly the courageous eye witnesses, the church workers, and human rights defenders who offered sanctuary, and the investigators and prosecutors who performed their duty,” said Jose Luis Martin Gascon, chairperson of the Philippines Commission on Human Rights (CHR).
“We call on the government to step up their efforts in delivering justice for all victims of EJKs by ensuring that all perpetrators are apprehended and charged,” he said.
An international rights watchdog also lauded the court decision but expressed concern that the police officers might get a presidential pardon.
“The court’s verdict today finding three police officers guilty in the August 2017 murder of 17-year-old Kian Delos Santos is particularly important because it is the first conviction of state agents implicated in a 'drug war' killing. This is a triumph of justice and accountability and a warning to members of the Philippine National Police to respect due process and the rights of civilians as they do their job,” said Brad Adams, Asia director, Human Rights Watch (HRW).
“But at the same time that we are heartened by this, we are also wary because Duterte has promised to pardon police officers convicted in the 'drug war' killings. There is reason to suspect that he will keep that promise. This is why it remains important that the government create an independent commission to investigate these killings,” he said.
The HRW noted that Duterte’s brutal drug war has not spared children, many of them dying at the hands of police during anti-drug operations. “They were either targeted or were simply caught in the cross-fire as police officers raided homes and communities. Most of these killings have not been investigated by the authorities,” Adams said.
“The police said that it has killed 5,000 during its anti-drug operations — that’s a lot of deaths that need to be thoroughly and independently investigated. This also underscores the need for the International Criminal Court to take further action on the complaints against Duterte,” he said.
No pardon for three cops convicted of drugs war murder: Duterte
No pardon for three cops convicted of drugs war murder: Duterte
- 3 policemen found guilty of killing a high-school student in 2017
- It is the first conviction in Duterte administration’s war on drugs
Air India crash death toll rises to 279: police source
- Revised toll from a senior officer in the city, who requested anonymity, raises an earlier figure of 265
- Official casualty number will not be finalized until the slow process of DNA identification is completed
The revised toll from a senior officer in the city, who requested anonymity in order to speak to the media, raises an earlier figure of 265.
The increase makes it one of the deadliest plane disasters of the 21st century.
Air India said there were 242 people on board the flight bound for London’s Gatwick airport, only one of whom survived.
At least 38 people were killed on the ground when the plane smashed into residential buildings near the airport.
The official casualty number will not be finalized until the slow process of DNA identification is completed.
Air India said there were 169 Indian passengers, 53 British, seven Portuguese and a Canadian on board the flight, as well as 12 crew members.
The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner issued a mayday call moments before it crashed around lunchtime on Thursday after lifting barely 100 meters (330 feet) from the ground.
Investigators recovered a black box recorder on Friday from the crash site, with forensic teams still looking for the second.
US planemaker Boeing said it was in touch with Air India and stood “ready to support them” over the incident, which a source close to the case said was the first crash for a 787 Dreamliner.
Thailand and Cambodia meet over border dispute
- Troops from the two countries exchanged fire on May 28 in an area known as the Emerald Triangle
- The Thai and Cambodian armies both said they had acted in self-defense, but agreed to reposition their soldiers
BANGKOK: Officials from Thailand and Cambodia met Saturday in Phnom Penh, an AFP journalist saw, as the Southeast Asian neighbors sought to resolve a long-running border dispute that last month devolved into clashes.
Troops from the two countries exchanged fire on May 28 in an area known as the Emerald Triangle, where the borders of Cambodia, Thailand and Laos meet, with one Cambodian soldier killed.
The Thai and Cambodian armies both said they had acted in self-defense, but agreed to reposition their soldiers to avoid confrontations.
Thailand has tightened border controls with Cambodia in recent days, while Cambodia ordered troops on Friday to stay on “full alert.”
Officials from the two countries had agreed to resolve the spat at Saturday’s meet in the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh.
Foreign ministry adviser Prasart Prasartvinitchai was leading the Thai delegation, while Chea Lam, minister of state in charge of the Secretariat of Border Affairs, headed the Cambodian contingent.
Neither side commented ahead of the talks.
The row dates to the drawing of the 800-kilometer frontier, largely done during the French occupation of Indochina.
The region has seen sporadic violence since 2008, resulting in at least 28 deaths.
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet announced earlier this month that Cambodia would file a complaint with the International Court of Justice (ICJ) over four disputed border areas, including the site of the latest clash.
The ICJ ruled in 2013 that a disputed area next to Preah Vihear temple belonged to Cambodia, but Thailand says it does not accept the ICJ’s jurisdiction.
Malian army, Russian allies suffer heavy losses in separatist ambush
- Separatist fighters claim destroying 21 military vehicles including armored cars and armed pick-up trucks in the ambush
- Mali army’s general staff acknowledged in a statement that a logistics convoy had been ambushed at dawn on Friday
DAKAR, Senegal: A separatist coalition battled Malian troops backed by Moscow-run mercenaries in the north of the country Friday, both sides and local sources said.
The deadly clashes, involving the separatist Azawad Liberation Front (FLA) and the Moscow-run Africa Corps, follows a series of attacks on the military in recent weeks.
In a statement Friday, the FLA said it had killed several dozen members of the Africa Corps.
“Around 15 bodies were left abandoned on the site of the fighting,” the statement added.
“We recovered 12 trucks loaded with cereals, tankers full of diesel, one military pickup, and one armored vehicles from the 30 vehicles in the convoy,” Mohamed Maouloud Ramadan, spokesman for the Azawad separatists, said in a statement that acknowledged the death of three of their members.
Viral videos shared by the separatists showed military trucks on fire in a large swathe of desert land amid gunfire as gun-wielding hooded young men posed in front of the trucks. The videos also showed bodies with uniforms that resemble those of the Malian army. The Associated Press could not independently verify the videos.
The FLA also said it had destroyed 21 military vehicles including armored cars and armed pick-up trucks.
Earlier, the army’s general staff acknowledged in a statement that a logistics convoy had been ambushed at dawn on Friday.
The army statement said the battle took place in the Kidal region where the army convoy had been conducting an “offensive operation against an armed terrorist group.”
It said “10 enemy combatants” had been killed.
Mali’s army retook several districts from separatists in 2023, among them Kidal, a pro-independence northern bastion.
Africa Corps is the successor to the Russian paramilitary group Wagner, which diplomatic and security sources confirmed to AFP over the weekend has now left Mali.
The group, overseen by Moscow’s defense ministry, is also actively supporting several other African governments.
“The fighters this Friday were fierce,” a regional elected official told AFP.
“There were losses on both sides. But we’ll have to wait for definitive figures.”
Since 2012, Mali has been mired in violence carried out by jihadist groups affiliated with Al-Qaeda and the Daesh group, as well as other organizations.
The Azawad separatist movement has been fighting for years to create the state of Azawad in northern Mali. They once drove security forces out of the region before a 2015 peace deal that has since collapsed was signed to pave the way for some ex-rebels to be integrated into the Malian military.
The latest clashes show how difficult it is for security forces in Mali to operate in difficult terrains like Kidal, according to Rida Lyammouri, a Sahel expert at the Morocco-based Policy Center for the New South think tank.
“It’s difficult to gather actionable intelligence to protect their convoys, and this gives a significant advantage to armed and jihadist groups”, said Lyammouri.
The latest attack occurred days after Russia’s mercenary group Wagner – which for more than three years helped Malian security forces in the fight against armed groups – announced it was leaving the country. The Africa Corps, under the direct command of the Russian defense ministry, said it will remain in Mali.
There are around 2,000 mercenaries in Mali, according to US officials. It is unclear how many are with Wagner and how many are part of the Africa Corps.
US adversaries fuel disinformation about LA protests, exploiting deep divisions in American society, say researchers
- Russian, Chinese, and Iranian state-linked sources behind 10,000 posts and articles on LA protests, says watchdog Newsguard
- Many peddled unfounded claims that California was ready to secede from the US and declare independence
WASHINGTON: Russia, China and Iran are amplifying disinformation about protests over immigration raids in Los Angeles, researchers said Friday, adding to a surge of domestically generated falsehoods and conspiracy theories.
The findings from researchers at the disinformation watchdog NewsGuard illustrate how foreign adversaries of the United States are exploiting deep divisions in American society as a tactic of information warfare.
NewsGuard said Russian, Chinese, and Iranian state-affiliated sources have published around 10,000 posts and articles about the demonstrations that recently erupted in Los Angeles, advancing false claims framing the city as “ground zero in an American apocalypse.”
Seizing on the political rift between President Donald Trump and Governor Gavin Newsom, pro-China accounts on X and Chinese platforms such as Douyin and Weibo have peddled unfounded claims that California was ready to secede from the United States and declare independence.
Meanwhile, Tehran-based newspapers have peddled the false claim that popular Iranian singer-songwriter Andranik Madadian had been detained by the National Guard in Los Angeles, in an apparent effort to portray the United States as an authoritarian state.
NewsGuard quoted Madadian, better known by his stage name Andy, as denying the claim, stating: “I am fine. Please don’t believe these rumors.”
Russian media and pro-Russian influencers, meanwhile, has embraced right-wing conspiracy theories, including the unfounded claim that the Mexican government was stoking the demonstrations against Trump’s immigration policies.
“The demonstrations are unfolding at the intersection of multiple vulnerabilities such as eroded trust in institutions, AI chatbots amplifying false claims about the unrest, political polarization, and a rollback of safety and moderation efforts by major platforms,” McKenzie Sadeghi, a researcher with NewsGuard, told AFP.
“As a result, foreign actors have a wide-open playing field to flood the zone with falsehoods at a faster rate and fewer barriers compared to previous moments of unrest,” she added.
The apparent alignment across the three countries was noteworthy, Sadeghi said.
“While Russia, China, and Iran regularly push their own unique forms of disinformation, it’s less common to see them move in such a coordinated fashion like this,” she said.
“This time, state media outlets have escalated their messaging to advance their geopolitical interests and deflect attention from their own domestic crises.”
The disinformation comes on top of false narratives promoted by US-based influencers.
In recent days, conservative social media users have circulated two photographs of brick piles they claimed were strategically placed for the California protesters to hurl at police and inflame violence.
The photos were cited as proof that the protests were fueled by nonprofit organizations supported by George Soros, the billionaire philanthropist who has long been a bogeyman for the far right.
But AFP’s fact-checkers found that one photo was lifted from an online marketplace, where a Malaysian hardware dealer uploaded it years ago, while the other was snapped near a construction site in New Jersey.
“Every time there’s a popular protest, the old clickbaity ‘pallets of bricks’ hoax shows up right on cue,” the Social Media Lab, a research center at the Toronto Metropolitan University, wrote on the platform Bluesky.
“The fact that these types of fake images are used isn’t a coincidence. It’s part of a pernicious (and) persistent narrative that protests against government policies are somehow inauthentic.”
India in mourning after over 240 killed in deadliest aviation disaster in decades
- Sole flight survivor Ramesh Viswashkumar a British national of Indian origin, is being treated at a hospital, airline confirms
- London-bound Dreamliner with 242 people on board also killed dozens more when it crashed into a medical college hostel
NEW DELHI, India: Indian authorities were combing the site of one of India’s deadliest aviation disasters on Friday, after an Air India plane crashed in the western city of Ahmedabad less than a minute after takeoff, killing all but one of its passengers.
The London-bound Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, which had 242 people on board, also killed dozens more people when it crashed into a medical college hostel located just outside Ahmedabad airport and burst into flames on Thursday afternoon.
The sole survivor, a British national of Indian origin, is being treated in a hospital, the airline confirmed.
“We are all devastated by the air tragedy in Ahmedabad. The loss of so many lives in such a sudden and heartbreaking manner is beyond words. Condolences to all the bereaved families,” Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi wrote on social media after visiting the crash site in the capital of his home state of Gujarat.
The passengers comprised 169 Indian nationals, 53 Britons, 7 Portuguese and one Canadian.
The surviving passenger, who was in seat 11A next to an emergency exit in front of the plane’s wing, reportedly managed to jump out. He told Indian media that he had heard a loud noise shortly after flight AI171 took off.
Various footage showed the plane taking off over a residential area and then sinking and disappearing from the screen, before a huge fireball could be seen rising into the sky from beyond the houses.
Those killed on board include a family who was visiting India for Eid, a newlywed who is moving to the UK and Vijay Rupani, former chief minister of Gujarat.
Health authorities are conducting DNA tests to identify bodies, which were mostly charred beyond recognition, as relatives take part and wait for officials to release the remains.
Suresh Khatika, who was waiting at the Ahmedabad Civil Hospital where the DNA testing was taking place, said his niece Payal Khatika was among the passengers.
“Payal was going for further studies and she has taken a loan for it. She was really preparing herself for the day when she would go to the UK for studies,” Khatika told Arab News.
“It is really tragic that her dream crashed like this. We are in deep pain, and don’t know how to react.”
Many Indians have also taken to social media to mourn the victims, as their stories circulated widely. Among them is Dr. Pratik Joshi, who was reportedly bringing his wife, Dr. Komi Vyas, and three young children to move to the UK. A picture of the family, believed to be taken on the plane and shared with relatives before takeoff, has garnered millions of views online as messages of condolence poured in.
In addition to the passengers and crew, dozens more people perished as they were caught in the path of the plane crash.
Thakur Ravi, a cook at B.J. Medical College, said his mother and two-year-old daughter, who had been on the side of the building where the plane had crashed, were missing.
“Other helpers and cooks managed to escape but my mother and daughter have been missing since yesterday,” Ravi told Arab News.
“We are frantically hoping against hope to have my family back. It was a horrible incident. It seemed as if the sky had fallen on us.”
Indian Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu said a formal investigation headed by the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau has been launched.
Boeing said it was in touch with Air India and stood “ready to support them” over the incident. The UK and US air accident investigation agencies also announced they were sending teams to support their Indian counterparts.
India, the world’s third-largest aviation market, has endured several fatal air crashes on its soil, including in 1996, when two planes collided mid-air over New Delhi, killing around 350 people. In 2010, an Air-India Express jet crashed and burst into flames at Mangalore airport in south-west India, killing 158 of the 166 passengers and crew onboard.
