A Philippine court handed a police officer two life imprisonment sentences for torturing and planting evidence on drugs war victims at the height of former President Rodrigo Duterte's bloody anti-narcotics crackdown.
Rights groups on Thursday welcomed the rare conviction and called for justice for thousands more who died during Duterte's six-year term, which ended in June 2022.
A Caloocan City court in the capital region sentenced police officer Jefrey Perez to two terms of life imprisonment, disqualification from public office, and monetary penalty over the arrest of Carl Angelo Arnaiz, 19, and Reynaldo De Guzman, 14, in August 2017, both of whom died.
