Asia

Philippine president's drug crackdown faces court challenge

Associated Press
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Choi Kyung-jin, left, the widow of South Korean businessman Jee Ick-joo, who was kidnapped and later killed by his abductors, holds hands with their former househelp Marissa Morquicho at the start of the Philippine Senate probe in the killing Thursday, Jan. 26, 2017 in suburban Pasay city, south of Manila, Philippines. The killing of Jee prompted President Rodrigo Duterte to apologize to the South Korean government. Morquicho was kidnapped by abductors, who were later identified as active police officers, together with Jee but was released unharmed. (AP Photo/Bullit Marquez) (The Associated Press)

Choi Kyung-jin, the widow of South Korean businessman Jee Ick-joo, who was kidnapped and later killed by his abductors, wipes her tears at the start of the Philippine Senate probe in the killing Thursday, Jan. 26, 2017 in suburban Pasay city, south of Manila, Philippines. The abductors were later identified as active police officers. (AP Photo/Bullit Marquez) (The Associated Press)

Choi Kyung-jin, the widow of South Korean businessman Jee Ick-joo, who was kidnapped and later killed by his abductors, cries at the start of the Philippine Senate probe in the killing Thursday, Jan. 26, 2017 in suburban Pasay city, south of Manila, Philippines. The killing of Jee prompted President Rodrigo Duterte to apologize to the South Korean government. Abductors were later identified as active police officers. (AP Photo/Bullit Marquez) (The Associated Press)

A survivor of an alleged Philippine police raid that killed four other drug suspects has asked the Supreme Court to stop such operations and help him obtain police records to prove his innocence in a test case against the president's bloody crackdown.

Lawyer Romel Bagares says his client Efren Morillo, a survivor of the August police raid in Payatas village in metropolitan Manila, and other petitioners also asked the court to order police to stop threatening witnesses.

Bagares says four policemen shot Morillo and four other men whom they accused of being drug pushers. Morillo survived and denied police allegations that he and his friends were drug dealers or that they fought back during the raid.