Former Philippines leader Rodrigo Duterte appears at International Criminal Court in The Hague
The former president of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, appeared before judges at the International Criminal Court in The Hague on Friday, days after his arrest in Manila on murder charges linked to the deadly “war on drugs” that he oversaw while in office.
The 79-year-old, who arrived in the Netherlands on Wednesday after being arrested in Manila on charges of crimes against humanity, sounded frail as he spoke via video link from the detention centre about a mile away where he is being held.
For families of victims of the drugs crackdown, Mr Duterte’s appearance in court was a long-awaited sign of hope.
“This is the first step to attaining justice,” lawyer Gilbert Andres, representing those families, said outside the court.
But Mr Duterte’s many vocal supporters say the arrest was illegal. His lawyer, Salvador Medialdea, used the hearing to decry his arrest in Manila as a “pure and simple kidnapping”. He said Mr Duterte “was denied all access to the legal recourse in the country of his citizenship, and this all in the nature of political score-settling.”
Presiding judge Iulia Antoanella Motoc set a pre-trial hearing date of 23 September to establish if the prosecution’s evidence is strong enough to merit sending the case to trial. If a trial does go ahead, it could take years, and if Mr Duterte is convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.
Estimates of the death toll during Mr Duterte’s presidency vary, from the more than 6,000 reported by the national police to 30,000, as reported by human rights groups.
The ICC judge said that Mr Duterte had been allowed to participate in his first hearing by video link because of the long flight from Manila.
Mr Duterte, wearing a jacket and tie, listened to the hearing through headphones, often with his eyes closed. He spoke in English to confirm his name and his date and place of birth. He was not required to enter a plea. The hearing, which started about half an hour late, lasted around 30 minutes.
Mr Medialdea said that Mr Duterte had been under observation in hospital because of health problems.
The judge, addressing Mr Duterte, said: “The court doctor was of the opinion that you were fully mentally aware and fit.”
Mr Duterte was arrested on Tuesday amid chaotic scenes in the Philippine capital after returning from a visit to Hong Kong. He was swiftly put on a chartered jet and flown to the Netherlands.
His daughter, Sara Duterte, who is vice president of the Philippines, visited him in the court’s detention centre on Friday and met supporters outside the court. Ms Duterte is a political rival of the current president.
She said her father was “in good spirits” and was being “well taken care of”, and added that his only complaint about the conditions in which he was being kept was that he misses Filipino food.
