Court orders trial for Imelda Marcos

Court orders trial for Imelda Marcos

MANILA (AP): The Philippine Supreme Court ordered a lower court on Wednesday to try the widow of dictator Ferdinand Marcos on 24 counts of illegally maintaining U.S. dollar accounts abroad.

The Supreme Court also castigated Judge David Nitafan of the Manila Regional Trial Court for dismissing the charges, filed by the government in 1992, without former first lady Imelda Marcos having sought to quash them.

The charges stemmed from the discovery of deposits belonging to the Marcoses in Swiss banks shortly after the former strongman was ousted by a popular revolt in February 1986.

The Swiss accounts, which have been claimed by succeeding administrations as part of Marcos' alleged ill-gotten wealth, have gathered interest over the years and are now valued at about US$570 million. The money has been transferred to an escrow account in a Philippine bank.