The ICC Has Arrested Former Philippine President For Alleged Crimes Against Humanity Linked His “War On Drugs" Campaign
Human rights groups in the country estimate Rodrigo Duterte's war on drugs campaign killed nearly 30,000 people.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) arrested former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte in Manila on Tuesday, March 11, for crimes against humanity linked to widespread, systematic killings by police as part of his “war on drugs" campaign.
79-year-old Duterte served as the country’s president between 2016 and 2022, leading a violent anti-drug campaign in which police killed thousands of people alleged to be drug suspects without proper process in extrajudicial killings, the BBC reported.
Police statistics say more than 6,000 people were killed, but human rights groups in the country estimate the number could be as high as 30,000.
To carry out his campaign, Duterte assured police and military officers that they would be immune from being prosecuted for killing anyone when they were on duties, Al Jazeera reported.
Most of the victims were from vulnerable communities, and police raided their homes without warrants and at times falsified evidence, according to the UN.
On Friday, March 7, the ICC issued an arrest warrant against Duterte, accusing him of leading a "widespread and systematic attack" on civilians, mostly targeting suspected drug traffickers and killing thousands of people over several years, Reuters reported.
On Tuesday, while Duterte was returning from Hong Kong, Philippine authorities arrested him at Manila's international airport and he was taken to The Hague, Netherlands, to face trial at the ICC.
He made his first trial appearance on March 15 via a video call from the Hague, with the ICC judge saying that he had been allowed to participate remotely as he had just come off a long flight.
This made him the first former Asian head of state to be charged by the ICC.
The ICC then set a pretrial hearing date of September 23, when the court will decide whether there is enough evidence to send the case to trial.
If so, the trial could take years, but Duterte could face a maximum sentence of life in prison.
Human rights groups have welcomed the arrest as a victory for justice, but Duterte questioned the arrest, asking what crime he has committed.
Meanwhile, the Philippines senate has opened a hearing into whether Duterte’s arrest was legal.
The Philippines officially withdrew from the ICC in 2019, just a year after ICC began its initial investigation into the killings, but the court still maintains its authority to investigate crimes committed between 2011 and 2019, when the country was still a member.
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