Philippine authorities arrested Rodrigo Duterte, former President of the Philippines, on Tuesday, for days after the International Criminal Court secretly issued an arrest warrant, accusing him of crimes against humanity.
The case will be a closely careful examination of the legal reach of the court explores Charges of genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and the crime of aggression from his base in The Hague.
Here’s what to know about the court and guidance of Mr. Duterte’s arrest.
The arrest of the ICC comes after a question of jurisdiction.
Prosecutor’s Office at the International Criminal Court said In 2018, he opened an investigation by Mr. Duterte, then President of Filipin, and charges of crimes committed during his drug suppression.
Right -based groups said that approximately 30,000 people were killed in his Antidrad campaign, many of them shot Officers, hit men or Vigilants. Some victims were minors and many ate not included in drug tradeaccording to activists.
ICC draws its jurisdiction from the Roman statute, the contract currently Signed 125 countries. Shortly after the announcement of the investigation, Mr. Duterte said that the Philippines would withdraw From the contract, and the country officially left the court in March 2019.
Mr. Duterte’s lawyer said the arrest is illegal and without jurisdiction because the country is no longer a member of the court. However, the Council of the ICC judges, however, ordered that he had been competent since March 7, that the court was competent because the charges have been the signatory of the contract since the Philippines.
The Philippines are still a member of Interpol, an international police organization, who may seek to arrest Mr. Duterete on behalf of ICC, the interpol representative was present when Mr. Duterte was arrested.
But the jurisdiction issues make the case legally complex, said Romel Bagares, a professor of international law based in Manila. In 2019 Mr. Bagares represented Coalition of activists for the Supreme Court rights as they opposed the withdrawal of the country from the ICC
According to the Philippine Law, the court will need to determine if the former president can be extradited, Mr. Bagares said. But only members of Interpol who are also part of the Roman statute are obliged to extradite people who wanted Interpol. Some foreign nationals who have been sought abroad have been quickly extradited in the past, he said. But this case was more controversial, he said.
“Legally, you can’t send someone who sought criminal proceedings abroad without a contract of extradition,” Mr. Bagares said.
The political split preceded the arrest of Duterte.
Mr. Duterte has long been considered immune to criminal prosecution, and the current president of the country, Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr., has previously committed to protect Mr. Duterte from an international investigation. The covenant between the two helped Mr. Marcos win the election of 2022 with Mr. Duterte’s daughter, Sarah Duterte, as his vice president.
But that alliance has been since then cracked. Legislators impered Mrs. Duterte last month for charges of corruption and threats to the President. Mrs. Duterte denied the charges and called an imperative attack on her political ambitions.
Now the arrest of Mr. Duterte is likely to add discomfort. The former president still has a significant monitoring, and many of his supporters are from disturbance from his arrest.
ICC suspended the investigation after the Philippines said that his own judicial system would investigate all allegations. But he continued his investigation into 2023 after the court considered the country’s investigation was not sufficient. Despite the previous one rejecting the judgment In this case, Mr. Marcos has since released officials from the ICC to the Philippines to do investigations.
“The government will, politically, tread in the minefield,” Mr. Bagares said. Although he expected that Mr. Duterte would eventually be arrested, he said, the speed of that surprised him.
Mr. Duterte was held on Tuesday at the Villamor Air Base in Manila, and his lawyers tried to submit a request in court for his release.
“It’s not like he traveled elsewhere and they grabbed him there,” said Sarah Williams, an international criminal law professor at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. She added that his own country of Mr. Duterte arrested him when it could claim that it had no obligation.
“This suggests that there is a pretty serious home policy in the game,” she said.
It could take a long time before the trial occurs.
For families whose loved ones were killed during Mr. Duterte’s burglary, his arrest was a step towards responsibility.
If he is extradited to The Hague, Mr. Duterte will initially appear in front of the ICC judges. Then they will face hearing Confirming the accusations, during which prosecutors will give more detailed evidence and his defense lawyers will be able to respond. His defensive team could also dispute questions of the jurisdiction, both in the ICC and in the Philippine courts, and could apply for temporary release while the proceedings continued, Professor Williams said.
The condemnation could come with a penalty of up to 30 years.
This could be from two months to two years, if not more, before Mr. Duterte faced a formal trial in The Hague, Professor Williams said. And his legal team claimed that the murders she was charged were in self -defense, she said.
“It will be a long way from Manila to The Hague,” Mr. Bagares said.
