Defense Team of Former Pres. Rodrigo Duterte Pens New Request To ICC
RODRIGO DUTERTE – The camp of the former President wants International Criminal Court prosecutor Karim Khan disqualified over alleged “conflict of interest”.
Former Pres. Duterte is detained under the custody of the ICC since March. The former Chief Executive is faced with an allegation of crimes against humanity over the war on drugs of his administration. The confirmation of his charges is set on September 23.
The ICC legal team of former Pres. Duterte is led by British-Israeli lawyer Nicholas Kaufman. Recently, countless Filipinos were surprised when Kaufman claimed that Duterte allegedly wants Harry Roque to stop interfering in his ICC case and just return to the Philippines.
Roque, a former spokesman of Duterte, is currently an asylum seeker in The Hague, Netherlands. He has a pending arrest warrant issued by a Philippine court over his alleged involvement in the illegal Philippine Offshore Gaming operations in the country.
As per his lawyer, former Pres. Rodrigo Duterte also allegedly expressed no desire to see nor be assisted by Harry Roque in his ICC case. Kaufman also claimed that a Dutch lawyer allegedly came to him and told him that Duterte’s former spokesman planned to sue the Dutch government over the transfer of the custody of his client.
The camp of Duterte has filed for his interim release to an undisclosed country but his lawyers also sought the ICC to hold off in making a decision to the plea. According to the British-Israeli lawyer, they still await some information and documents that will support their bid.
Recently, ahead of the confirmation of charges, the camp of former Pres. Rodrigo Duterte requested the ICC to disqualify ICC prosecutor Karim Khan from the case. Based on a report on Inquirer, he is the prosecutor who handled the last stage of the investigation of the Duterte drug war and ordered the arrest of the former President.
According to lawyer Nicholas Kaufman, ICC prosecutor Karim Khan allegedly committed a “grievous conflict of interest” for not disclosing his role as a private lawyer for the victims prior to taking the post at the Prosecutor’s Office. Based on the report, the British-Israeli lawyer claimed that it is allegedly a violation of the Rule 34 (1) of the ICC Rules and Procedures.
“Mr. Khan abused the criminal process to push forward an investigation in which he had an undeclared personal interest, or at the very least an undeclared personal obligation from which he had not sought to release himself,” Duterte’s lawyer stated.
Previously, the camp of former Pres. Rodrigo Duterte also appealed to disqualify two (2) ICC judges but it was denied by the court. They were Judges María del Socorro Flores Liera and Reine Adélaïde Sophie Alapini-Gansou.
Amid the different issues, former Pres. Rodrigo Duterte’s partner Honeylet Avanceña claimed that she’s barred from visiting Duterte inside the ICC detention facility.