The defense of former Philippine president Duterte was rejected by the International Criminal Court
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International Criminal Court judges ruled Monday that former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte is ready to stand trial after postponing a previous trial over concerns for the octogenarian’s health.
Duterte is facing charges of crimes against humanity for his alleged involvement in several killings as part of his war on drugs while in office, first as mayor of a southern city and later as president.
The lawyers of the 80-year-old man said that Duterte is in poor health and his condition is getting worse in the ward kept by the court.
Duterte was arrested in March and will appear in court in The Hague in September. That trial was delayed after a pre-trial panel of judges granted a “limited adjournment” to give the court time to decide “whether Mr. Duterte is ready to follow and participate” in the trial.
After an examination by a panel of medical experts, the judges found that Duterte “is able to properly exercise his procedural rights and is therefore ready to participate in the pre-trial proceedings.”
The hearing has now been postponed to 23 Feb.
The panel included experts in geriatric neurology and psychiatry. According to court documents, Duterte underwent a psychiatric, mental and physical examination.
Duterte’s lawyer, Nick Kaufman, said he was disappointed with the decision and would like to appeal the decision. The defense attorney “was denied the opportunity to present his medical evidence and to question, in court, the conflicting results of the experts selected by the jury,” he said.
Human rights groups and victims’ families hailed Duterte’s arrest in March. Two organizations that support the families of those killed by Duterte hailed the court’s decision as a “remarkable victory for justice and accountability.”
“The ICC decision confirms a simple but powerful truth: No one, not even a former head of state, is above the law,” said a joint statement by SENTRO, a labor rights organization, and the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women – Asia Pacific.
According to a report last month, ICC prosecutors said Duterte ordered and authorized “acts of violence including killings to be carried out against suspects, including suspected drug dealers and drug users.”
Prosecutors announced in February 2018 that they would open a preliminary investigation into the so-called drug war overseen by Duterte when he served as mayor of the southern Philippine city of Davao and later as president.
In a move that human rights activists say was aimed at avoiding accountability, Duterte, who was president at the time, announced a month later that the Philippines would withdraw from the court.
The judges rejected the request of Duterte’s legal team to dismiss the case on the grounds that the court lacks jurisdiction because the Philippines has withdrawn from the court. States cannot “abuse” their right to withdraw from the Rome Statute by “protecting individuals from justice in relation to alleged crimes that are under investigation,” the September ruling said.
Estimates of the number of people killed during Duterte’s administration vary, from more than 6,000 reported by the national police to 30,000 claimed by human rights groups.
