Rodrigo Duterte charged with crimes against humanity at ICC

Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte visited New Zealand while in office. Photo / Greg Bowker

Former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte has been charged with crimes against humanity by prosecutors at the International Criminal Court.

He is accused of involvement in the killing of at least 76 people as an elected official.

Duterte has been imprisoned in The Hague, where the ICC is headquartered, since March. He was detained by Philippine police acting on an ICC warrant.

Court documents allege that Duterte is responsible for “instructing and authorising violent acts including murder” as part of the nationwide war on drugs that killed thousands of suspected criminals and drug dealers across the Philippines, drawing widespread international condemnation, including from human rights groups, world leaders and UN agencies.

Most of the killings were carried out by security forces colloquially known as the “Davao Death Squad” – named after Duterte’s hometown Davao City, where he was mayor before assuming national office.

Drug war

The charges centre on three periods during Duterte’s eight-year campaign to stamp out drugs, including the murders of 19 people in Davao City from 2013 to 2016; the killing of 14 “high-value targets” in 2016 and 2017; and the murder or attempted murder of 43 “‘lower-level’ criminals” in greater Manila from 2016 to 2018.

Prosecutors allege that Duterte rewarded hit men with payments of $875 to $17,000 for killing a “high-value” target.

Duterte’s next court appearance was scheduled for Tuesday (local time), but it was postponed while prosecutors consider whether the elderly former statesman is fit to hear the charges. Duterte attended his initial hearing over video.

Duterte’s lawyer, British Israeli attorney Nicholas Kaufman, has called for the dismissal of his client’s case, arguing that the court no longer has jurisdiction over the Philippines since the country left the Rome Statute, the legal basis for the court, in March 2019. He has also argued Filipino authorities bypassed due process by arresting Duterte without a formal extradition request from the ICC.

The international court maintains that Duterte’s arrest was coordinated by the court and that it has jurisdiction to prosecute the former president for crimes that took place before the Philippines’ 2019 withdrawal.

Kaufman has recently argued that his elderly client is not prepared to stand trial “as a result of cognitive impairment in multiple domains”.

Sara Duterte, the former president’s daughter, is the current vice president of the Philippines and has been involved in organising his defence.

The ICC investigates and tries individuals charged with major international crimes, including genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and crimes of aggression. Legally independent of the United Nations, it is the only permanent international court able to prosecute individuals for such crimes.

US President Donald Trump has issued a strong rebuke of the international court since returning to office in January. He imposed sanctions on the court’s chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, as well as his two deputies and six judges, and he expanded sanctions on three Palestinian rights groups that supplied evidence of Israeli war crimes in Gaza to the court.

The president has echoed Kaufman’s line of defence to ICC prosecutors, saying it has no jurisdiction to pursue the 2024 arrest warrants filed against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant because Israel is not a party to the Rome Statute.

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