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Imelda Marcos makes tearful return
JP/11/J03

Imelda Marcos makes tearful return

PHILIPPINES: Tearful, lame, but unbowed, Imelda Marcos said on
Thursday that she loved her country and would never run away, as
government lawyers tried to have the former first lady arrested
for returning late from a foreign trip.

Marcos flew back to the Philippines from London on Wednesday,
overshooting by 10 days a deadline set by a graft court that is
trying her on corruption charges related to late dictator
Ferdinand Marcos's two-decade rule.

The court had granted her a 30-day travel permit to visit the
United States and Europe on medical and religious grounds, but
some newspapers reported she had been spotted in Italy quaffing
wine in restaurants and shopping for luxury goods.

Marcos, whose powers of persuasion are as legendary as her
enormous shoe collection, said the last leg of her trip in
Britain had been necessary because eye experts treating her are
based there.

"This has been the most harassed and stressful trip of my
life," she told reporters after limping out of court.

"They have taken everything from the Marcoses," she said.
"They want conviction for life imprisonment, now they want
conviction for my eyesight." -- Reuters