Court acquits Filipino Nobel prize winner on tax evasion charges

Philippines' Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Ressa has been acquitted of a final tax evasion charge on September 12.

As reported by AP, she has been acquitted of the last tax evasion charge after a court set her free from four previous ones in January. She still faces two remaining legal cases which she believes the former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has been involved in in order to suppress her her critical reporting of him.

According to Ressam the charges against her were politically motivated as her news organization, Rappler was critical of President Duterte’s brutal crackdown on illegal drugs which killed thousands of mostly petty drug suspects.

The International Criminal Court is investigating the crackdown as a possible crime against humanity.