Duterte faces charges over his years-long campaign against drug users and dealers that rights groups say killed tens of thousands
Speaking earlier this week, Karim Khan KC, who has served as prosecutor of the international criminal court since 2021, said that the appearance of Rodrigo Duterte in The Hague showed that international law was “not as weak as some may think.”
Describing the arrest of Duterte as “an important moment”, Khan said:
The office has been investigating the situation of the Philippines for some time in relation to the so-called “war on drugs”.
The judges have issued [a] warrant, and it’s been executed. And in issuing the warrant, the judges have found reasonable grounds to believe that MDuterte has committed the crime of murder as the founder, as the head of the so-called Davao death squad, as the mayor of Davao City, and then later as the president of the Philippines between 2011 and 2019.
It is important to underline, as we now start a new stage of proceedings, that Duterte is presumed innocent. He will make his initial appearance before the court soon, and the focus of the office is on the judicial proceedings, and on proving his case before the judges of the international criminal court.
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