Three Philippine police officers sentenced for 40 years in prison for being guilty on drug war murder

Reuters - A Philippine court on Thursday (November 29) found three police officers guilty of murder for the killing of a 17-year-old high school student, the first such conviction in President Rodrigo Duterte's war on drugs. The three police officers were sentenced to up to 40 years in prison by a Caloocan City regional trial court for the murder of Kian Lloyd delos Santos in August 2017 in a dark, trash-filled alley in a northern suburb in the capital Manila. They will not be eligible for parole, the court said. The schoolboy's killing has stirred unprecedented public attention on what activists said were executions and systematic abuses by police backed steadfastly by Duterte. Close to 5,000 people have died in the anti-drugs police operations during the 29-month war on drugs in the Philippines.