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A South Korean businessman kidnapped by Philippine policemen under the guise of a raid on illegal drugs was murdered at the national police headquarters in Manila, authorities said Thursday.
Philippine police chief Ronald Dela Rosa said he felt deep shame as he announced the latest development in the case, which has fuelled fears about widespread abuse by officers as they prosecute President Rodrigo Duterte's deadly anti-drug war.
"They know the whole story of how they took him, brought him to Camp Crame (police headquarters), and strangled him," Dela Rosa said, referring to police officers accused of involvement in kidnapping and murdering the businessman, who was aged in his 50s.
Ji disappeared from his home in Angeles city, about two hours' drive north of Manila, in October last year.
The kidnappers demanded from his wife a ransom and she initially paid US$100,000, thinking he was still alive.
Police chiefs said then that three officers were directly involved and one superior oversaw the operation.
The policemen led the wife to believe her husband was alive for months, but he had been in fact killed on the day he was abducted, police said on Wednesday.
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