RP rapist set to be executed on Feb. 5

Sat, 23 Jan 1999, 00:00 WIB | Source: AFP

MANILA (AFP): Convicted child rapist Leo Echegaray will be
executed on Feb. 5, the first in the Philippines in 23 years,
Justice Secretary Serafin Cuevas said on Friday.

"We were already furnished a copy of the writ of execution
fixing the date to February 5," Cuevas told reporters.

The date was set by trial court Judge Thelma Ponferada, whose
court originally handed down the death sentence on Echegaray for
raping his then 11-year-old daughter in 1994.

Echegaray was supposed to have been put to death by lethal
injection Jan. 4, but the Supreme Court granted a stay just three
hours before the execution by issuing a restraining order. The
court cited moves in Congress to repeal a law that restored the
death penalty.

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