Statement of ICC on “Crime Against Humanity” Accusation vs. Duterte
ICC – Fadi El Abdallah, the spokesman of the International Criminal Court, clarified that there is no required number of cases to establish “crime against humanity”.
The camp of former Philippine President Rodrigo Roa Duterte was sent the documents that contain the details about the accusations against the former President. According to his daughter, Vice Pres. Sara Duterte, the number of victims did not reach 50 and there were 181 pieces of evidence.
Vice Pres. Sara Duterte questioned the presence of the 30,000 pieces of evidence against the war on drugs campaign of her father. According to her, having 181 items of evidence is allegedly not a case in the Philippines and in the ICC.
The Philippine Vice President lambasted the lawyer of the alleged victims of the war on drugs campaign of her father’s administration. She sought for the names of the 30,000 alleged victims of the controversial campaign.
Previously, lawyer Kristina Conti who defends the alleged victims of Duterte’s drug war said that naming the victims is unnecessary in the trials before the International Criminal Court. Based on a report on GMA News, she even challenged the Vice President to present her claim before the foreign court.
Recently, ICC spokesman Fadi El Abdallah spoke on the number of cases required to establish a “crime against humanity”. Based on the report, Abdallah explained that there is no required number of cases.
The ICC Spokesperson said that even one killing may be considered a crime against humanity when “there is a plan that involves a widespread or systematic recurrent attack against a civilian population”.
The legal team of former Pres. Rodrigo Roa Duterte is led by British-Israeli lawyer Nicholas Kaufman. However, the camp of the former Philippine President has yet to reveal the other members of Duterte’s legal team.
Duterte’s lawyer Nicholas Kaufman hopes to convince the judges that the ICC cannot exercise jurisdiction in the Philippines. He is confident on their jurisdictional argument saying he will be disappointed if it will not succeed. In case the judges will hear it, there might be no need to get to the confirmation of charges.
Globally, there is a huge population of Duterte supporters who are showy about their support for the former President. However, former Pres. Rodrigo Duterte asked his supporters not to interfere with his ICC case and let his lawyers handle it.