A senior United States senator on Tuesday (Monday night in Washington, D.C.) called for the release of Sen. Leila De Lima and three other political prisoners who are languishing in jails from various parts of the world even as he vowed to continue using the US Senate as a platform from which to promote their cause.
(PHOTO BY JANSEN ROMERO / FILE PHOTO / MANILA BULLETIN)
While speaking on the US Senate floor, Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Illinois) raised the enlarged photo of Sen. De Lima showing her seated in front of a desk while inside her detention cell at the Philippine National Police Custodial Center in Camp Crame.
“Filipina Senator Leila DeLima just passed her fourth year languishing in a jail in the Philippines. As a leading human rights advocate, she has criticized the repressive actions of President Rodrigo Duterte,” Durbin said in his speech.
Durbin, who is currently the majority whip and chair of the US Senate Committee on Justice, told his colleagues that De Lima would often write him letters from her detention where she is under confinement for almost four years now on charges of alleged complicity in illegal drugs.
“As a human rights advocate, she has criticized the oppressive actions of President Rodrigo Duterte. From time to time, Sen. De Lima writes me from that cell,” Durbin said as he read a portion of the Filipino senator’s letter declaring that her "will to fight for what is right continues to be undeterred.”
The American lawmaker from the State of Illinois emphasized that time after time, they have been successful in seeking the release of political prisoners from other countries by speaking on the Senate floor, pressing the embassies of countries where they are imprisoned and “trying to put some “political pressures on the leaders of these countries to release those prisoners.”
“You wouldn't believe that would work, would you, in an authoritarian regime, but it turns out it does,” he added.
In the Philippines, Durbin said De Lima is not alone in being targeted by Duterte, citing the case of journalist Maria Ressa who has received a series of arrest warrants in November 2020 and on January 10, 2021.
The US senator also shared the stories of political prisoners Raif Badawi and his lawyer Waleed Abu Al-Khair (both jailed in Saudi Arabia), and Ahmed Mansoor (United Arab Emirates) who are often cruelly led to believe they or their efforts to push for freedoms are forgotten.
“Let me remind Raif Badawi, Waleed Abu Al-Khair, Senator Leila De Lima, Maria Ressa, and Ahmed Mansoor, we have not forgotten you. We will continue to back you,” he said.