Court orders arrest of Imelda Marcos, widow of Philippine dictator, for corruption
- The former first lady and incumbent lawmaker was found guilty of seven counts of graft for allegedly maintaining Swiss accounts as a cabinet member
- She has been ordered to serve six to 11 years in jail for each count in a decision that comes nearly three decades after the case was first filed
The Philippines’ anti-corruption court ordered the arrest of former first lady Imelda Marcos on Friday after finding her guilty of seven counts of graft during the two-decade rule of her husband and late dictator, Ferdinand Marcos.
Imelda, 89, a sitting three-term congresswoman who is known for her huge collection of shoes, jewellery and artwork, once wielded immense power in the Southeast Asian nation before her family was toppled in an army-backed popular uprising in 1986.
Bank documents left behind in the couple’s haste to flee the presidential palace were used to build the case against Imelda, which has been ongoing since 1991. The documents showed that the couple had created supposed charitable foundations in Liechtenstein and elsewhere, which they then used to open secret bank accounts in Switzerland.
Headway only began to be made in the case when the Swiss Federal Court ruled in 1997 “that the majority of the Marcos foundation assets were of criminal origin”.
