Former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte is scheduled to make his first appearance before judges of the International Criminal Court, days after his stunning arrest in Manila on murder charges linked to the deadly “war on drugs” he oversaw while in office.
The 79-year-old Duterte, the first Asian former leader arrested on an ICC warrant, will be read his rights and formally informed of the charges of crimes against humanity that the court's prosecutors filed against him after a lengthy investigation.
Estimates of the death toll during Duterte’s presidential term vary, from the more than 6000 that the national police have reported up to the 30,000 claimed by human rights groups.
The court will also seek to set a date for a key pre-trial hearing - likely months from now - at which judges will assess whether there is enough evidence to proceed to a full trial, which could take years.
If Duterte is convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.
Duterte was arrested on Tuesday amid chaotic scenes in the Philippine capital after returning from a visit to Hong Kong.
He was swiftly put on a chartered jet and flown to the Netherlands. After a series of medical checks on arrival, he was taken to the court's detention centre behind the high brick walls of a Dutch prison complex close to the North Sea coastline.
Prosecutors accuse him of involvement as an “indirect co-perpetrator” in multiple murders, amounting to a crime against humanity for allegedly overseeing killings from November 2011 until March 2019, first while he was mayor of the southern city of Davao and later as president of the Philippines.
Duterte will not be required to formally enter a plea at Friday's hearing.
Human rights groups and victims' families have hailed Duterte’s arrest as a historic triumph against state impunity, while the former president's supporters have slammed what they call the government’s surrender of a rival to a court whose jurisdiction they dispute.
Duterte’s legal team said President Ferdinand Marcos Jr’s administration should not have allowed the global court to take custody of the former leader because the Philippines is no longer a party to the ICC.
“Our own government has surrendered a Filipino citizen - even a former president at that - to foreign powers,” Vice-President Sara Duterte, the ex-president’s daughter and a political rival of the current president, said on Tuesday before her father was flown out of Manila.
Judges who approved Duterte's arrest warrant said the court has jurisdiction because the crimes alleged in the warrant were committed before Duterte withdrew the Philippines from the court in 2019.
