The Filipino authorities arrested Rodrigo Duterte, the previous president of the Philippines, on Tuesday, days after the Worldwide Prison Court docket secretly issued an arrest warrant accusing him of crimes in opposition to humanity.
The case might be a intently scrutinized check of the authorized attain of the court docket, which investigates accusations of genocide, battle crimes, crimes in opposition to humanity and the crime of aggression from its base in The Hague.
Right here’s what to know concerning the court docket and the lead-up to Mr. Duterte’s arrest.
The I.C.C. arrest comes after jurisdiction questions.
The prosecutor’s workplace on the Worldwide Prison Court docket said in 2018 that it was opening an investigation into Mr. Duterte, then the president of the Philippines, and accusations of crimes dedicated throughout his crackdown on medication.
Rights teams have mentioned that roughly 30,000 individuals had been killed in his antidrug marketing campaign, lots of them gunned down by cops, hit males or vigilantes. Some victims had been minors, and plenty of had been not involved in the drug trade, in line with activists.
The I.C.C. attracts its jurisdiction from the Rome Statute, a treaty at present signed by 125 nations. Quickly after the inquiry was introduced, Mr. Duterte mentioned the Philippines would withdraw from the treaty, and the nation formally left the court docket in March 2019.
Mr. Duterte’s lawyer has mentioned the arrest is illegitimate and with out jurisdiction as a result of the nation is now not a court docket member. A panel of I.C.C. judges, nevertheless, wrote within the warrant, dated March 7, that the court docket had jurisdiction as a result of the accusations dated from when the Philippines was nonetheless a signatory of the treaty.
The Philippines continues to be a member of Interpol, the worldwide police group, which may search to arrest Mr. Duterte on behalf of the I.C.C. A consultant of Interpol was current when Mr. Duterte was arrested.
However questions of jurisdiction make the case legally advanced, mentioned Romel Bagares, a professor of worldwide legislation primarily based in Manila. In 2019, Mr. Bagares represented a coalition of rights activists within the Supreme Court docket as they opposed the nation’s withdrawal from the I.C.C.
Beneath Filipino legislation, a court docket might want to decide whether or not the previous president will be extradited, Mr. Bagares mentioned. However solely Interpol members who’re additionally a part of the Rome Statute are obliged to extradite individuals wished by Interpol. Some overseas nationals who had been wished overseas had been shortly extradited up to now, he mentioned. However this case was extra controversial, he mentioned.
“Legally, you can’t ship out somebody sought in a prison process overseas with out an extradition treaty,” Mr. Bagares mentioned.
A political schism preceded Duterte’s arrest.
Mr. Duterte had lengthy been seen as basically resistant to prosecution, and the nation’s present president, Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr., had beforehand pledged to protect Mr. Duterte from worldwide inquiry. An alliance between the 2 helped Mr. Marcos win election in 2022 with Mr. Duterte’s daughter, Sara Duterte, as his vp.
However that alliance has since ruptured. Lawmakers impeached Ms. Duterte final month over accusations of corruption and threatening the president. Ms. Duterte has denied the accusations and referred to as the impeachment an assault on her political ambitions.
Now, the arrest of Mr. Duterte is probably going so as to add to the turmoil. The previous president nonetheless has a considerable following, and plenty of of his supporters have been in uproar since his arrest.
The I.C.C. had suspended its inquiry after the Philippines mentioned its personal judicial system would examine any allegations. But it surely resumed its investigation in 2023 after the court docket discovered the nation’s investigation inadequate. Regardless of beforehand rebuffing the court on this case, Mr. Marcos has since let officers from the I.C.C. into the Philippines to conduct inquiries.
“The federal government might be treading right here on a minefield, politically,” Mr. Bagares mentioned. Although he had anticipated Mr. Duterte to be arrested finally, he mentioned, the velocity of it shocked him.
Mr. Duterte was being held on the Villamor Air Base in Manila on Tuesday, and his legal professionals had been scrambling to file a petition in court docket for his launch.
“It’s not as if he’s traveled to some place else they usually’ve grabbed him there,” mentioned Sarah Williams, a world prison legislation professor on the College of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. She added that Mr. Duterte’s personal nation had arrested him when it might have argued it had no obligation to take action.
“It does recommend there’s fairly critical home politics at play,” she mentioned.
It could possibly be a very long time earlier than a trial occurs.
For households whose family members had been killed throughout Mr. Duterte’s crackdown, his arrest was a step towards accountability.
If he’s extradited to The Hague, Mr. Duterte will make an preliminary look earlier than the I.C.C. judges. He’ll then face a hearing confirming the fees, throughout which prosecutors will give extra detailed proof and his protection legal professionals will be capable to reply. His protection crew might additionally problem questions of jurisdiction, each within the I.C.C. and in Filipino courts, and he might apply for a provisional launch whereas proceedings proceed, Professor Williams mentioned.
A conviction might include a sentence of as much as 30 years.
It could possibly be anyplace from two months to 2 years, if not longer, earlier than Mr. Duterte faces a proper trial in The Hague, Professor Williams mentioned. And his authorized crew has argued that the killings he has been accused of had been in self-defense, she mentioned.
“It’s going to be a protracted highway from Manila to The Hague,” Mr. Bagares mentioned.
