Defer ruling on Duterte release plea, ICC judges urged

MANILA, Philippines — After initially highlighting the urgency of their request for interim release of former president Rodrigo Duterte from detention in The Hague, his lawyers now want pre-trial chamber judges of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to hold off making a decision on their plea.

In a six-page filing dated July 18, defense lawyer Nicholas Kaufman asked the ICC Pre-Trial Chamber I to suspend action on the request, so as to allow the defense “to assemble all necessary information.” Kaufman leads Duterte’s legal defense team.

The request was heavily redacted, but like in his recent filings, Kaufman indicated supposed delays in receiving some information from the prosecution.

In response, ICC deputy prosecutor Mame Mandiaye Niang asked the judges to reject the request, saying the failure of the defense to substantiate its assertions was mainly due to its premature filing of the request.

“The Defense submitted that the issue of interim release needed to be resolved urgently, to the extent that it requested that the Chamber reduce the Prosecution’s time limit to respond,” read Niang’s five-page filing.

“In a complete reversal, the Defense now asks the Chamber, again on an urgent basis, not to rule on its Request for Interim Release,” he added.

Niang said Duterte’s camp should not be “entitled to delay the adjudication of this matter simply so that it can supplement its original submission.”

Even if the chamber denies the request for interim release, the prosecutor noted that the defense can still renew its application in the future “should it have good cause.”

Last June, Kaufman filed an urgent request for interim release, arguing that Duterte is “not a flight risk, and custody is not necessary to ensure his appearance before the Court.”

The defense initially claimed that the government of an undisclosed country had already agreed to host Duterte and that the prosecution posed no objection to his interim release.

But the ICC prosecutor and the victims’ counsel would later voice opposition to the request, citing the risks associated with releasing the former president. The prosecution also denied there was such an agreement with a foreign government.

Duterte is awaiting trial in The Hague for crimes against humanity in connection with the deaths of thousands in his so-called war on drugs.

There are speculations that other Duterte officials actively involved in his drug war – particularly Sen. Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa – would also be issued arrest warrants.

No arrest order for Bato

But Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin clarified yesterday that there is no ICC arrest warrant for Dela Rosa.

Bersamin made the clarification in reaction to a Kyodo News report quoting him as saying that the senator may be arrested if the ICC issues an arrest warrant against him.

“I did not mention that there was already a warrant – if there should be a warrant, we’ll probably do the same thing that we did in the case of the former president, if the warrant is coursed through the Interpol because we continue to be a member of the Interpol,” Bersamin said, referring to Duterte’s arrest carried out by the local police in coordination with the Interpol.

Asked whether there was already an ICC arrest warrant for Dela Rosa, Bersamin replied, “None.”

Dela Rosa, who served as the chief of the Philippine National Police under Duterte, is said to be the architect of the brutal crackdown on illegal drugs also known as Oplan Tokhang.

“We are not going to do things differently unless the Supreme Court in those pending cases makes a different announcement about how we should proceed,” Bersamin, a former chief justice, said.

He cited a law which allows the government to either surrender an accused or follow extradition proceedings.

“So that is how it went at the time. The President’s (Marcos) judgment was that the surrender option was the better one,” Bersamin said.

“There’s really nothing discriminatory that we will ever undertake. We’re always clear about that, we’re not politically motivated. All those attributions to us were unfair,” he said.

Rallies to continue

In The Hague, Vice President Sara Duterte said over the weekend that supporters of her father would continue to hold rallies in major urban centers in the Philippines like Manila, Cebu City and Davao City to show to the world the alleged collusion between the Marcos administration and the ICC in his arrest.

“The ICC allowed itself to be used by the administration of (President) Marcos, while Marcos is using the ICC to bring to a distant place, to arrest and remove former president Duterte from our country,” she said on video.

“They do not understand that the essence of democracy is to allow for the existence of an opposition, or for our people to be able to express what they think is wrong in this administration,” she added. “That is stifling dissent and that is not democracy.” — Helen Flores, Evelyn Macairan