Ex-Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte appears before the International Criminal Court (ICC) as he faces charges related to his controversial war on drugs. In this historic trial, the ICC examines allegations of crimes against humanity stemming from thousands of extrajudicial killings during Duterte’s presidency. This first day of hearings at The Hague sets the stage for a high-stakes legal battle that could determine accountability for the brutal crackdown.
#RodrigoDuterte #Duterte #DuterteICC #DuterteTrial #ICCHearing #Philippines #DuterteDrugWar #BreakingNews #SaraDuterte #DuterteArrest #DuterteLive #PhilippinesNews #HumanRights #WarOnDrugs #ICC
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#RodrigoDuterte #Duterte #DuterteICC #DuterteTrial #ICCHearing #Philippines #DuterteDrugWar #BreakingNews #SaraDuterte #DuterteArrest #DuterteLive #PhilippinesNews #HumanRights #WarOnDrugs #ICC
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What Is The International Criminal Court, Which Had Former Philippine President Duterte Arrested :: https://www.oneindia.com/international/what-is-the-international-criminal-court-which-had-former-philippine-president-duterte-arrested-4094009.html?ref=DMDesc
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NewsTranscript
00:00The International Criminal Court is now in session.
00:04L'Alliance de la Cour Penale Internationale est ouverte.
00:18Please be seated.
00:19Rivez au soir.
00:30Good morning.
00:41I would like to welcome everyone inside and outside of the courtroom.
00:46Now before we start with today's initial appearance, I would like to remind you that the Chamber
00:55has authorized video recordings and the taking of photographs.
01:00Please go ahead.
01:12You have one minute to take photographs and record videos.
01:34Thank you very much.
01:36Court Officer, could you please call the case?
01:41Thank you, Madam President, Your Honours.
01:45The situation in the Republic of the Philippines case, the prosecutor versus Mr. Rodrigo Roa
01:54Duterte, case number ICC 0121-0125, and we are in open session.
02:08Thank you very much.
02:09I will now ask the parties to introduce themselves, starting with the Office of the Prosecutor.
02:15Please pause before speaking and speak slowly to allow the interpreters to interpret appropriately.
02:23May I ask you to introduce yourself and to confirm whether the list of your staff that
02:28I received prior to the hearing is correct, Mr. Prosecutor?
02:32Madam President, Your Honours, good morning.
02:36The list is correct.
02:38Once again, Deputy Prosecutor Manjay Niang to my left, Trial Lawyer Edward Jeremy behind
02:45us, Trial Lawyer Robin Croft, International Cooperation Advisor Chantelle Daniels, and
02:54our very able case manager, Grace Goh.
02:57I'm Karim Khan, the prosecutor.
03:01Merci beaucoup.
03:02Thank you very much.
03:04I now turn to the Council for the Defence of Mr. Duterte.
03:09As everyone can see, Mr. Duterte is present and is attending the hearing via video link.
03:16As Mr. Duterte made a long journey involving a considerable time difference, the Chamber
03:23authorised Mr. Duterte to follow the hearing at a distance.
03:27His counsel, however, is present with us in the courtroom.
03:32Thank you, counsel.
03:33Please introduce yourself.
03:34Good afternoon, Your Honours.
03:38I am Salvador C. Medjoldea, counsel for Rodrigo Roa Duterte.
03:46Merci beaucoup.
03:50Thank you very much.
03:52Thank you very much, counsel.
03:54I will now introduce the Chamber.
03:56By my side, we have Judge Reine Adelaide Sophie Alapine-Gansu, the Vice-President of
04:06the Court, and Judge Maria del Socorro Flores-Liera.
04:10I am the presiding judge of the pretrial Chamber 1 of the Court, and my name is Yulia Antoinella
04:16Mortoc.
04:17Now, I would like to speak to you, Mr. Duterte.
04:20I'm speaking French, but you are receiving interpretation of what I'm saying in English.
04:26I understand that you are at ease in the English language, and that the interview
04:31yesterday at the detention centre was conducted in English, and that you did not deem it necessary
04:37to request interpretation into any other language during this interview.
04:43This said, I would like firstly to confirm your identity.
04:48Could you provide us with your full names, please?
04:52Jean-Rodrigo Roa Duterte.
04:58That's my first middle name is Roa, and my surname is Duterte.
05:15Merci beaucoup.
05:17Thank you very much.
05:18What is your date of birth?
05:22Again.
05:30Can we request that the question be repeated?
05:36I don't think he heard it.
05:40Repetition from the English booth.
05:41What is your date of birth?
05:42Yes.
05:43Thank you very much, Counsel.
05:44I was asking, quite simply, of Mr. Duterte what his full names were, and then I subsequently
05:51asked him what his date of birth was and what his place of birth is.
05:56Is that all right, Counsel?
05:58Yes, of course, I did.
06:02My birth date is March 28th, 1945.
06:11I was born in the province of Leyte in the Philippines.
06:20Thank you very much. As a preliminary point, it is useful to clarify the nature and limited
06:38scope of this first appearance hearing. Today's hearing is neither the start of the trial
06:47nor is it a confirmation of charges hearing. During today's hearing, no evidence will
06:54be collected or presented and the issues of Mr. Duterte's guilt or innocence will therefore
07:03not be addressed. In accordance with Article 61 of the Rome Statute, the Court's founding
07:12treaty and Rule 1211 of the Rules of Procedure and Evidence, the main purpose of this initial
07:20appearance is to answer three questions. Firstly, the Chamber must ensure that the person who
07:30was the subject of the arrest warrant has been informed of the crimes of which he is
07:37accused. Second, the Chamber must ensure that this person has been informed of his
07:46rights as recognised by the Rome Statute. Third, the Chamber must set a date on which
07:55it intends to hold a confirmation of charges hearing. The Chamber notes that your counsel,
08:07Mr. Duterte, filed two motions, one in relation with today's hearing, and you may be aware
08:17that these two motions have not been accepted by the Chamber because of the nature of today's
08:31hearing. No further discussion on the matter is necessary during this hearing because,
08:38as I said at an earlier stage, the aim of this hearing today is to introduce the parties
08:48and to ascertain the charges and to set a date for the confirmation of charges hearing
08:55at a later stage. With regard to the first point, I recall that Mr. Duterte has received
09:03a copy of the warrant for his arrest and that a redacted version of the Prosecution's application
09:11for the issuance of the warrant of arrest is public. I will now ask the Court Officer
09:17to read the charges against him. The charges will be read in English. Please, over to you,
09:24Madam Courtroom Officer. Thank you, Madam President. Your Honours, on 7 March 2025,
09:31pre-trial Chamber 1 concluded that there were reasonable grounds to believe that Mr. Duterte
09:39is criminally responsible pursuant to Article 25 3A of the Rome Statute as an alleged indirect
09:50co-perpetrator for the crime against humanity of murder pursuant to Article 7 1A of the Statute
10:00as follows. A. Murder of at least 19 persons, allegedly drug pushers or thieves, killed by
10:10members of the Davao death squad in various locations in or around Davao City, Philippines,
10:18between 2011 and 2016. B. Murder of at least 24 persons, allegedly criminals, such as drug pushers
10:31or thieves or drug users, killed by or under the supervision of members of the Philippines
10:38law enforcement, sometimes with the assistance of persons who were not part of the police,
10:45at various locations in the Philippines between 2016 and 2019.
10:57Thank you, Madam Courtroom Officer. Mr. Duterte, I'm not going to ask you to stand up because I
11:06know your condition, so I'm going to allow you to remain seated. You have just heard the reading of
11:13the charges which are in accordance with the content of the arrest warrant you received.
11:18This means that you have been informed of the crimes of which you are accused and this concludes
11:25the examination of the first point mentioned above. I will now turn to the second point
11:31which concerns your rights as a suspect before this Court. I will summarise some of these rights
11:39which are of particular importance at this stage of the proceedings.
11:44Those rights are as follows. You can benefit from the assistance free of charge of a competent
11:51interpreter and benefit from the necessary translations to meet the requirements of
11:58fairness. You have the right to have the time and facilities necessary to prepare your defence
12:08and to communicate freely and confidentially with the counsel of your choice.
12:15You have the right to remain silent and you cannot be forced to testify against yourself
12:23or to confess guilt. You can also make statements in your defence without taking an oath.
12:31In addition to any other disclosure provided for in the statute, the prosecutor must disclose to
12:39you as soon as practicable evidence in his possession or at his disposal that shows or
12:50tends to show your innocence or to mitigate your guilt or that could undermine the credibility
12:58of the evidence against you. At the confirmation of charges hearing, you can contest the charges,
13:04challenge the evidence presented by the prosecutor and present evidence. There will be no trial if
13:11the charges are not confirmed or if the proceedings against you are completed. You have the possibility
13:17to make an application for interim release pending trial and finally, Mr Duterte, you have the right
13:24to be informed as soon as possible and in detail of the nature, cause and content of the charges
13:34in the language that you fully understand and speak. Counsel, have you understood?
13:42We're listening, ma'am. We're listening and before it ends, may we be allowed to
13:50to present a manifestation on the circumstances behind the delivery of Mr Duterte in this chamber.
14:02Yes, counsel. This is as part of the procedure and as we've said since the very outset, I need to
14:22ask Mr Duterte himself to make observations as to the condition of his surrender to the court
14:31and the conditions of his detention at the detention facility of the court since his arrival.
14:39If he can please tell us these details.
14:52Yes, counsel.
14:54Please. Two days ago, the whole world has witnessed the degrading fashion in which
15:02a former president of a sovereign country was bundled into a private aircraft and summarily
15:10transported to The Hague. To us lawyers, this would be called an extrajudicial rendition.
15:19To the less legally inclined, it was a pure and simple kidnapping.
15:28My client was denied all access to the legal recourse in the country of his citizenship
15:36and this all in the nature of political scores settling. Two troubled entities
15:45struck an unlikely alliance. An incumbent president who wished to neutralize and choke
15:52the legacy of my client and his daughter on the other hand and a troubled legal institution
15:59subject to delegitimization and desperate for a price cut and a legal show today on the other hand.
16:10With this in mind, it is not surprising that my client was abducted from his country.
16:16ICC private jets do not drop out of the thin air. That jet was which received my client was
16:24coordinated in advance. The UAE is not a state party to the ICC and has no obligation to
16:34to cooperate with the court. Yet my client sat in transit in that country for more than five hours.
16:44I invite the registry's representative to present today in court to explain to the judges
16:52exactly how they believe this transfer was anything other than a gross abuse
16:59of process. Given the precipitous arrival of my client, an elderly man with debilitating medical
17:07issues, hard of hearing and poor of sight, he was taken to a hospital for observation.
17:15Only this morning have I met him for the first time with less than an hour to discuss legal
17:24legal issues.
17:28Legal issues. I have not been able to present him with a hard copy of the arrest warrant
17:35because we were not supplied with such. I have not even been able to explain to him what the
17:42prosecution requested when seeking the issuance of the arrest warrant. This is because the chamber
17:48only established a redacted version of the prosecution request last night. Other than
17:56to identify himself, my client is not able to contribute anything to this hearing. Most
18:03importantly, he is not able even to tell you that he has been informed of the charges as contained
18:11in the arrest warrant for a reason more pertinent to which I alluded in my written request to this
18:20honorable pretrial chamber this morning, and which is confidential in nature.
18:27Accordingly, I repeat my respectful request, which was rejected this morning, to postpone
18:34the substantive aspect of this hearing to the next week, when I will have the opportunity
18:41to sit with my client and to explain to him what the confirmation hearing is, and what the
18:48disclosure is, and how the prosecution alleges that he committed crimes. I thank the court for
18:56its attention and regret to say that I do not have instructions to continue my submission
19:02any further today. Thank you.
19:12Thank you, Counsel. Now, with regard to the health issues of Mr Duterte, I believe that the
19:23court has taken specific measures with regard to his health situation, and I note that subsequent
19:31to his arrest, and when he arrived at the detention center, the court's doctor was of the
19:38opinion that you were fully mentally aware and fit, and that you have undergone further checks
19:48and tests at the detention facility. And when you broached health matters saying that you were not
19:55able to come to the hearing, the doctors who consulted with you were of the opinion that Mr
20:02Duterte was not in a position to come to the hearing physically, but that if he gave written
20:08permission, he would be able to take part via video link. Now, that is with regard to the health
20:14matters that you just mentioned. They are very important, especially concerning the matter of
20:22age. Now, with regard to the rights of Mr Duterte, we have before us the registrar's or the registry's
20:31report that says that Mr Duterte has been informed of his rights, including articles 66 and 67 of the
20:40Rome Statute, and that he is aware of his rights and that he is also aware of the charges against
20:51him. We have before us the report of the registry saying that he was also aware of the warrant of
21:00arrest in the English language and that he is very well versed in the English language.
21:06Once again, you have the possibility of these charges being read in English, which was the case
21:16today. I have read to you in the French language the rights that he has, Mr Duterte, before this
21:24court, and I'd like to specify once again that this is an initial hearing in order for
21:34for Mr Duterte to be aware of his rights and the charges against him, and then there will be a full
21:44procedure that will unfurl leading up to the confirmation of charges that will enable Mr
21:55Duterte to raise all the matters that you have just raised with regard to the warrant of arrest,
22:01with regard to the crimes committed, with regards to the charges and any other matters associated
22:08with his arrest and the matters of jurisdiction of the court. You have the opportunity to do this
22:16throughout these proceedings leading up to the actual confirmation of charges hearing. Now,
22:23counsel, with regard to your request for another hearing to be held next week, well, your initial
22:31request that was, this was not accepted by the court. Now, you have seen the two decisions of the
22:40court that have been disclosed to you, and you are aware of the fact that these two decisions were
22:46refused, and this is tied into the fact that this first initial appearance hearing does not need
22:54much preparation, as I have said to you on a number of occasions. I am now going to move on to
23:02the third stage, which is to set the date for the confirmation of charges hearing. After accessing
23:10all factors, including the need for the parties and participants to adequately prepare, as well as
23:17Mr Duterte's rights, including his right to be tried within a reasonable time, the date for the
23:24commencement of the confirmation of charges hearing is September the 23rd, 2025. I would add
23:34that in accordance with Rule 1217 of the Rules of Procedure and Evidence, this date may be postponed
23:41by the Chamber, depending on the progress of the proceedings, either on its own motion or at the
23:47request of the prosecutor or the defence. Before concluding this hearing, I would like to inform
23:54the parties of the next procedural steps. First, I would like to recall that in accordance with Rule
24:011212B of the Rules of Procedure and Evidence, the Chamber holds status conferences to ensure
24:10a small exchange of information under satisfactory conditions. These conferences
24:17are organised either ex officio or at the request of the prosecutor or the defence.
24:24Secondly, a set of decisions will be taken in a timely manner to ensure that the proceedings
24:30progress smoothly and expeditiously. More specifically, I am referring in particular
24:38to a decision on the arrangements and procedure for the disclosure of evidence and a decision
24:45setting a timetable for the disclosure of evidence in such a way as to ensure orderly and efficient
24:55disclosure between the parties. In this regard, the Chamber orders the prosecutor to begin disclosing
25:02the information on the basis of which the warrant of arrest was issued, and to complete this
25:09disclosure no later than within the next seven days. The Chamber will also issue a decision on
25:18the participation of the victims who, according to the statute of the Court and to the extent
25:24permitted by the Chamber, are authorised to present their views and concerns at this stage
25:31of the proceedings. We have come to the end of Mr Duterte's first appearance hearing. I would
25:40like to thank all the participants in this hearing, the interpreters and the stenographers.
25:47This concludes today's hearing. Don't miss out. Log on to oneindia.com for more updates.