Harassment seen in case pursued vs PDI staffer

An Inquirer staffer has asked the Department of Justice (DOJ) to review an apparent harassment case against him that originated from a complaint of grave threat but was elevated to a case of serious illegal detention by a Digos City prosecutor for still unknown reasons.

Allan Nawal, Inquirer Mindanao assistant bureau chief, filed a petition for review in the DOJ  after Digos City Prosecutor Cristopher Abarilla started to pursue a nonbailable case against him based on a complaint by a Manuel Edejer.

Nawal said Edejer had already issued an affidavit of desistance but “prosecutors declined to recognize it.”

“The office of the city prosecutor of Digos seriously erred in upgrading the charge to serious illegal detention,” Nawal said in his petition. The upgrading of the case, he said, “was biased.”

He added that the prosecutor grossly ignored facts and the effort of the complainant to have the case dismissed by hiring a lawyer to prepare his statement withdrawing his complaint.

“The decision of the city prosecutor gives rise to suspicion that the act was tainted with malice,” Nawal said in his petition.

Edejer, Nawal said, has never been subjected to illegal detention as the prosecutor wants the case to appear.

“The investigating prosecutor never summoned the complainant and the respondent for clarificatory conference and relied on a one-sided account without corroboration,” said Nawal’s petition.

Nawal said the case stemmed from information that he received from reliable police sources about a murder plot against him over drugs and gambling reports in Digos.

Past midnight of July 9, 2013, Nawal said three unidentified armed men barged into the compound where he lives, one of them being Edejer.

Nawal said he fired a warning shot and was able to get hold of Edejer. Nawal said he quickly called for police help and turned over Edejer.