The defense team of Rodrigo Duterte challenged the ICC.
The lawyers of former President Rodrigo Duterte challenged the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Last March, the world was taken by surprise after the International Criminal Court (ICC) arrested former PH president Rodrigo Duterte. The arrest is due to his alleged crimes against humanity related to his war on drugs during his time as president. Many lives were claimed, and some are believed to be innocent.
His new lawyer is Dov Jacobs, who will focus on the ICC’s jurisdiction. Duterte is currently in The Hague, Netherlands, where he was detained, and his defense team is led by British-Israeli lawyer Nicholas Kaufman.
On May 9, the prosecution must submit applications to withhold the identity of witnesses by this date, and prior to this, on May 1, his legal team submitted documents challenging the jurisdiction of the ICC.
Accordingly, the court “is not in a position to exercise jurisdiction in the Philippines situation after the country’s effective withdrawal from the Rome Statute,” citing that the Rome Statute clearly stated: “A State must be a State Party at the time of the exercise of jurisdiction.”
To recall, the country withdrew from the ICC Rome Statute, effective on March 17, 2019, and the EJK was reportedly between November 1, 2011, and March 16, 2019. In this period, the country was still a member of the ICC.
Duterte’s lawyers said, “The Prosecutor has never demonstrated that the Court was legally authorised to exercise jurisdiction after the Philippines’ effective withdrawal from the Rome Statute,” and argued the irrelevance of Article 127(2) of the Rome Statute in the case of the former PH president.
Article 127 of the Rome Statute is:
Kaufman sees this as a strong argument in the case of Duterte, considering the country’s withdrawal, and hopes that the judges will accept their submission.
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