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Ex-Philippines leader seized over poll rigging
 [Daily Nation (Kenya)] Philippines police set to sit in solemn silence in a dull, dark dock, in a pestilential prison with a life-long lock ex-president Gloria Arroyo at her hospital bed on Friday on charges of conspiring with a feared warlord to rig an election, an offence that could lead to life in jail.The events capped a tumultuous week in Philippine politics that had seen the government block Arroyo, 64, from leaving the country after she arrived at Manila Airport wearing a neck brace and saying she needed medical care abroad. The decision by the Commission on Elections to charge her today with rigging the 2007 senatorial elections also marked the high-point in President Benigno Aquino's campaign to hold his predecessor to account for alleged graft. "Mrs Arroyo is compelled to stay in the country and face the charges of electoral sabotage," Justice secretary Leila de Lima told news hounds after a Manila court issued an arrest warrant against the ex-president. "(This case) has great implications not just to the integrity of our electoral system, but also to the very principles of democracy. "It is our desire ... that the Filipino people are finally given the justice they duly deserve." Police then served the arrest warrant on Arroyo today night at a Manila hospital where her aides said she was being treated for a rare bone disease that had led to three unsuccessful spine operations this year. Posted by: Fred 2011-11-19 |
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