Duterte camp scrambling to stop ICC trial before it starts – lawyer

MANILA, Philippines — Former President Rodrigo Duterte’s legal counsel is looking to challenge the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) jurisdiction on his crimes against humanity case to prevent it from reaching trial at all costs, a lawyer representing extrajudicial killing (EJK) victims said Tuesday.

Because once the trial takes place, it would be hard for Duterte’s lawyer, Nicholas Kaufman, to counter the “surmounting” evidence against him, according to Atty. Neri Colmenares.

In an interview with Agence France-Presse, Kaufman said he thinks “the jurisdictional argument is compelling,” noting that “there won’t be a confirmation-of-charges hearing if the judges rule in our favor.”

Colmenares said they already expected Kaufman to raise the issue on jurisdiction.



READ: Saving Rodrigo Duterte hard even for ‘world’s best’ lawyers – Butuyan

“There is no other way to defend former Pres. Duterte except on jurisdiction,” Colmenares said in a statement.

“They will have to argue on jurisdiction because if the charges are confirmed and this goes to trial they will not be able to surmount the evidence that Pres. Duterte ordered the killings of many people in his war on drugs,” he continued.

Colmenares also noted that the issue on jurisdiction has been previously resolved by the Court as provided in Article 127 of the Rome Statute that while a state may withdraw, such withdrawal shall not “prejudice in any way the continued consideration of any matter which was already under consideration by the Court prior to the date on which the withdrawal became effective.”

On March 16, 2018, Duterte declared the Philippines’ withdrawal from the Rome Statute or the treaty which established the criminal court.

But the withdrawal took effect only a year after or on March 16, 2019.

Jude Sabio, lawyer of confessed hitman Edgar Matobato, filed the complaint before the ICC in 2017 while Colmenares filed the complaint of the victims’ families in August 2018.

READ: Duterte, 11 others accused of crimes against humanity before ICC

“Since the matter of crimes against humanity has been under the consideration of the Court before the withdrawal, therefore the ICC has jurisdiction,” Colmenares said.

Meanwhile, ICC-accredited lawyer Joel Butuyan noted that Kaufman is arguing that the international court’s Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) investigation must have commenced before March 16, 2019, for them to have continuing jurisdiction beyond that date.

“But if the ICC validates Kaufman’s argument, any crime committed in February 2019 will obligate the OTP and ICC pretrial chamber to finish and complete the preconditions of a preliminary investigation, all in an impossible span of one month,” Butuyan told INQUIRER.net on Tuesday.

“So, Kaufman’s interpretation makes a mockery of the ICC’s jurisdiction,” he added.

The British-Israeli lawyer who served as the legal counsel of celebrities and other high-profile individuals will represent a client who himself repeatedly admitted to ordering the police to kill suspects during the drug war.

READ: ‘Happy’ to kill: Rodrigo Duterte’s views on drug deaths

At least 6,000 people were killed during the Duterte administration’s drug war, according to official government data. But watchdogs and the ICC prosecutor estimated the death toll to be between 12,000 and 30,000 from 2016 to 2019, many of which are alleged to be EJKs.

“You can be the best and the brightest defense lawyer in the world, but with a client that provided the ammunition to the prosecution, like in this particular case, I don’t know how you can actually obtain an acquittal,” Butuyan said in an online press conference on March 17.

Colmenares said: “In this case the main issue in the hearing is whether there is substantial grounds to believe that Pres. Duterte committed the killings during his drug war."

“We believe the charges will be confirmed and he will go to trial and become the first Asian to be tried in the ICC,” he added.

 

(2025/04/01-12:19)