Copyright thediplomat
Former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has appealed a decision by the International Criminal Court (ICC) affirming its jurisdiction over his case, according to court documents released on Wednesday. In March, the 80-year-old former leader was arrested in Manila on an ICC arrest warrant and transferred to the custody of the court. He faces charges of crimes against humanity for extrajudicial killings carried out during his violent “war on drugs” campaign, a flagship policy of his administration between 2016 and 2022. However, Duterte’s lawyer Nicholas Kaufman has attempted to argue that the court did not open a full-fledged investigation into alleged crimes in the Philippines until 2021, more than two years after Duterte withdrew the Philippines from the ICC in March 2019. As such, Kaufman has argued, the court has not met the preconditions for the exercise of jurisdiction over his client. Last week, judges at the ICC’s Pre-Trial Chamber I rejected this line of argument, ruling that the then prosecutor announced that she was opening an investigation into the Philippines Situation in February 2018, which prompted the Philippines to withdraw from the court the following year. As such, the Chamber ruled that the court could “exercise its jurisdiction in the present case over the crimes alleged against Mr Duterte that were committed on the territory of the Philippines while it was a State Party” – i.e. prior to March 2019. According to Reuters, Duterte’s lawyers “asked the court to reverse a lower panel’s decision to continue the case and find there is no legal basis for it.” Duterte’s anti-drug campaign, which began the moment that he was sworn into office in mid-2016, was modeled on the tough approach that he employed during his years as mayor of Davao City on the southern island of Mindanao. Estimates of the number killed during the anti-narcotics campaign range from a few thousand to as high as 30,000. On September 23, ICC prosecutors formally charged Duterte with three counts of crimes against humanity for murder. They allege that from November 2011 to March 2019, Duterte and his co-perpetrators “shared a common plan or agreement to ‘neutralize’ alleged criminals in the Philippines (including those perceived or alleged to be associated with drug use, sale, or production) through violent crimes, including murder.” Wednesday’s appeal is just one of a number of legal avenues that Kaufman and his team have pursued in a bid to secure their client’s release. In a filing in June, Kaufman requested Duterte’s interim release to an unspecified third country, arguing that the ex-president’s illness and “advanced age” created “compelling humanitarian grounds” for the chamber to grant Duterte’s interim release. While the specifics about Duterte’s health were redacted from the filing that was released by the court, Duterte’s lawyers later argued that he was unfit to stand trial due to “cognitive impairment in multiple domains.” It claimed that Duterte suffered from significant cognitive deficiencies that affect his memory, his executive functioning, his visuo-constructive abilities, and his orientation to place and time while “limiting his capacity for complex reasoning.” On October 10, judges at the ICC rejected the petition seeking Duterte’s interim release, finding he was likely to refuse to return for trial and could use his freedom to intimidate witnesses. In their 23-page decision, the panel of pretrial judges said that as a former president, Duterte “appears to have the necessary political contacts” to “help him abscond.” A decision on the health-related ruling is not expected until mid-November, Reuters reported.
