Former Pres. Rodrigo Duterte’s Camp Wants ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan Removed from Case
ICC prosecutor Karim Khan opposed the bid of former President Rodrigo Duterte’s camp to disqualify him from the case.
Since March, former Pres. Rodrigo Roa Duterte is under the custody of the International Criminal Court after the Philippine authorities assisted the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) for his arrest. The former Chief Executive is faced with an allegation of crimes against humanity over his administration’s drug war.
Pres. Bongbong Marcos and the government were heavily-criticized over the arrest and the transfer of custody of former Pres. Rodrigo Roa Duterte to the ICC. Malacañang defended the President saying the government only did its job.
Vice Pres. Sara Duterte believes that the ICC and Pres. Bongbong Marcos allegedly used each other in the arrest of former Pres. Rodrigo Roa Duterte. According to her, the ICC supposedly wants to pursue a case against her father while the Marcos Jr. admin wants him away from the country.
Duterte is detained under the custody of the ICC in The Hague, Netherlands for more than five (5) months now. The confirmation of his charges against the former President is set on September 23.
The camp of former Pres. Rodrigo Duterte has filed for his interim release in an undisclosed country but his lawyers also asked the court to hold off in deciding over the plea. According to his legal team, they still await from documents and information that will back the bid.
Recently, the camp of former Pres. Rodrigo Duterte asked the court to disqualify ICC prosecutor Karim Khan from the case of the former President. According to Duterte’s lead counsel, British-Israeli lawyer Nicholas Kaufman, Khan supposedly 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.
The said ICC Prosecutor was the one who handled the last stage of the Duterte drug war investigation and ordered the arrest of the former President.
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.
“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,” Kaufman stated.
Recently, ICC prosecutor Karim Khan rejected the bid of former Pres. Rodrigo Duterte’s camp to disqualify him from the case. Based on a report on GMA News, the Khan stressed that there is allegedly no grounds against him to be removed from the former President’s case.
“The Prosecutor files this Notification in order to advise PTC I (Pre-Trial Chamber 1) that the Prosecutor has carefully considered whether the circumstances summarised above give rise to any grounds for disqualification and that he does not consider that any grounds for disqualification currently exist,” the ICC Prosecutor stated in a notification filed before the Pre-Trial Chamber.
Furthermore, Karim Khan also stated in his notification that there is allegedly “no conflict of interest” in accordance with rule 33. Based on the report, the ICC Prosecutor recalled that in June 2018, he was part of a legal team that represented more than 100 alleged victims of the drug war in the Philippines and they filed a submission to former Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda.
“The Prosecutor was not directly involved in investigations or interviewing any victim or witness, but participated pro bono in reviewing and presenting the submission to the then Prosecutor Bensouda. Mr Khan withdrew from the matter and ceased any involvement shortly thereafter,” the ICC Prosecutor said.
Former Pres. Rodrigo Duterte’s camp has yet to comment on the matter. Amid his detention, former Pres. Rodrigo Duterte is “very happy” of the Supreme Court ruling on the impeachment case against Vice Pres. Sara Duterte in the Philippines.