MANILA - Controversial New Bilibid Prison (NBP) high-profile inmate Jaybee Sebastian filed graft and criminal charges with the Department of Justice (DOJ) against embattled Senator Leila de Lima on Friday over several issues involving the state penitentiary.

Sebastian, through his wife, Roxanne, charged De Lima, along with former Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) Director General Ricardo Rainier Cruz and former NBP Superintendent Richard Schwarzcopf, Jr. with the following:

• violations of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act;
• violations of the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees;
• violations of the Anti-Torture Act of 2009;
• indirect bribery for allegedly requiring him to raise funds, through illegal drug trade;
• receiving drug money and using the same for her senatorial bid;
• announcing to journalists that he is a government asset; and,
• allowing his transfer to the prison facility's Building 14 despite threats to his life.

"Because of De Lima's revelation that Sebastian was an asset, inmates in Building 14 [of the New Bilibid Prison] were enraged, thus his purported killing on September 28," Sebastian's legal counsel Eduardo Arriba earlier said.

• READ: Jaybee Sebastian refutes De Lima, says he's not a gov’t asset

Among the detainees in the Building 14 of the NBP are the "Bilibid 19" or the high-profile inmates who enjoyed VIP treatment until the government uncovered their luxurious lifestyles in the national penitentiary in 2014.

De Lima announced that Sebastian was a government asset on Sept. 23, 2016. A few days later, the crime boss was stabbed in a brawl involving three other inmates.

Under the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act, public officials who cause undue injury to a party in the discharge of his function through evident bad faith and gross inexcusable negligence should be penalized, Arriba said.

Sebastian, while testifying at a congressional probe, had also said that De Lima ordered him and other gang leaders inside the NBP to sell illegal drugs. Other high-profile inmates have also testified to the same.

De Lima has repeatedly denied the allegations, saying the inmates and other witnesses were just being forced by the government to vilify her.

• READ: De Lima says inmates hurt in riot forced to testify against her

Sebastian's camp, however, said the high-profile inmate was not pressured to press charges against De Lima.

The senator is also facing other complaints before the justice department.