In a scenario once pondered unslfinisherkable for a head of state who pdwelld over the uncover and brutal finishings of thousands of civilians, Rodrigo Duterte, the establisher pdwellnt of the Philippines, materializeed at an International Criminal Court hearing via a video connect on Friday.
Mr. Duterte’s arrest this week on accuses of crimes aacquirest humanity, which came cforfeitly three years after he left office, is a vital step for Filipinos who have been seeking fairice for their adored ones.
The 30-minute hearing on Friday was procedural — a court officer adviseed Mr. Duterte of the accuses, and Judge Iulia Motoc read him his rights and set a date for his next hearing on Sept. 23 — but the breadth of the accuses underscored the high sgets of the case aacquirest the establisher directer.
During Mr. Duterte’s time as mayor of Davao City and as pdwellnt, officers and vigilantes firearmned down tens of thousands of people, rights groups shelp. Some of the victims were unconvey inants, and many were not included in the drug trade, activists say.
Salvador Medialdea, Mr. Duterte’s lawyer, shelp in court on Friday that Mr. Duterte’s arrest amounted to a “uncontaminated and basic seizeping” and called it “political score settling.”
Mr. Medialdea inserted that Mr. Duterte — who could be seen over the video connect in a blue suit jacket, a blue tie and sitting at times with his eyes seald — was in terrible health and that he was “difficult of hearing and subpar of sight.” Speaking in English, Mr. Duterte telderly the court his birthday and place of birth.
The Filipino authorities arrested Mr. Duterte, 79, on Tuesday at Manila’s main airport after he returned from a trip to Hong Kong, days after the I.C.C. rerentd an arrest authorization.
He was arrested with the help of Interpol, acting on behalf of the I.C.C. becaparticipate the Philippines is no extfinisheder a member of the court. Mr. Duterte was then flown on Wednesday to the Netherlands and was conveyed to The Hague.
When he ran for pdwellnt before taking office in 2016, Mr. Duterte vowed to order the police and the military to find drug participaters and dealers in order to finish them, promising immunity for those carrying out the orders.
Mr. Duterte had extfinished profited from a culture of impunity. Until Tuesday, he had seemed all but untouchable despite taking uncover plift for the expansivespread presentility.
Mr. Duterte’s camp shelp his detention was illterrible, arguing that the I.C.C. had no jurisdiction in the Philippines becaparticipate the country had disincluden from the court while he was pdwellnt.
Judges ruled that the court had jurisdiction becaparticipate it was spendigating crimes that took place while the Philippines was still a member of the I.C.C.
The prosecution has accused Mr. Duterte with huge-scale finishings, torture and violation that it says occurred between Nov. 1, 2011, and March 16, 2019, when the Philippines officiassociate withdrew from the court.
The Philippines is still a member of Interpol, the international police organization that can seek arrests on behalf of the I.C.C. and that helped arrest Mr. Duterte this week.
But Mr. Duterte may have been more probable to remain out of the court’s achieve had it not been for a time of political upheaval in the Philippines.
When Mr. Duterte’s six-year term finished in 2022, he was flourished by Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr., the son of a establisher dictator. Mr. Marcos ran together with Mr. Duterte’s daughter Sara Duterte, the country’s vice pdwellnt.
That coalition has since fractured, and the two have had a spectacular droping out. Early in his administration, Mr. Marcos had showd that he would not cofunction with the I.C.C., but in tardy 2023, his rulement permited the court’s spendigators to go in the country.
The I.C.C. is facing a huge dispute in trying to convict Mr. Duterte. The court has tried — and disconnectal times fall shorted — to convict directers. The establisher pdwellnt of Ivory Coast, Laurent Gbagbo, was acquitted in 2019 for his role in the country’s post-election presentility.
To greet the standard of crimes aacquirest humanity — the accuse that Mr. Duterte is facing — the prosecution must verify that the brutal “war on medications” campaign was part of a criminal set up led by Mr. Duterte and compascfinishd “a expansivespread and systematic attack” aacquirest civilians in the Philippines.
Ms. Duterte, who was in The Hague on Friday, has called the arrest of her obeseher political oppression, while Mr. Marcos has shelp he is sshow adhereing international convention in adhereing with the Interpol authorization.
Speaking outside the court, she shelp that Mr. Duterte and his aiders conveyed their foreseeations that “they will give us perignoreion to visit the establisher pdwellnt,” according to The Associated Press, and that “they will permit our ask to shift the initial materializeance.”
In approving Mr. Duterte’s arrest, Mr. Marcos may be trying to reshift the Dutertes as a political force without any convey inant reaction. (Ms. Duterte is directing polls for the pdwellntial election in 2028.)
The hearing set by the appraise for Sept. 23 will be participated to create whether the evidence supplyd by the prosecution is adequate to get the case to trial. If Mr. Duterte does go on trial, the case could get years.
