Metro Manila, Philippines – The defense camp of Rodrigo Duterte requested the International Criminal Court (ICC) Appeals Chamber to order the former Philippine president’s “immediate and unconditional release,” continuously challenging the court’s jurisdiction on the case.
In its October decision, the ICC Pre-Trial Chamber I, led by Judge Iulia Antoanella Motoc, ruled it can exercise its jurisdiction in Duterte’s case over alleged crimes while the Philippine was a state party to the Rome Statute.
In its appeal brief dated Nov. 14, Duterte’s defense team sought to reverse the ICC Pre-Trial Chamber I’s decision to reject the jurisdiction challenge, maintaining that the Philippines is no longer a member of the international court.
The defense, headed by British-Israeli lawyer Nicholas Kaufman, told the appeals chamber to “[find] that there exists no legal basis for the continuation of International Criminal Court proceedings against Mr Rodrigo Roa Duterte.”
“[T]he principal issue on appeal is whether the exercise of jurisdiction beyond the effective date of a State Party’s withdrawal may be justified, as found by the Pre-Trial Chamber, by construing Article 127(2) as lex specialis with respect to Article 12,” the defense said. The cited articles pertained to provisions on a state party’s withdrawal from the Rome Statute, which formed the ICC.
“Should the Appeals Chamber side with the Defence, and reject this legal novelty, then the present Appeal must succeed without consideration of any further argument,” read the appeal.
The defense also argued that the pre-trial chamber’s decision was “materially affected” by three errors.
In March 2018, Duterte said he will withdraw the country from the ICC, a month after the ICC Office of the Prosecutor opened a preliminary examination on the alleged extrajudicial killings. The withdrawal took effect a year later.
Duterte was detained in the ICC in March this year due to alleged crimes against humanity in relation to his bloody war on drugs. The case covered alleged crimes from November 2011 to March 2019, whan the country was still a member of the ICC.
