ICC judges reject jurisdiction challenge by Philippines ex-president Duterte

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THE HAGUE (Reuters) -Judges at the International Criminal Court (ICC) have rejected a challenge to the court’s jurisdiction in a case against former Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte and said his case can move forward, a court decision published on Thursday showed.

Duterte, in office from 2016 to 2022, was arrested and taken to The Hague in March on an arrest warrant that linked him to murders committed during his war on drugs in the Philippines, where thousands of alleged narcotics peddlers and users were killed.

Duterte and his lawyers have said his arrest was unlawful and challenged the jurisdiction of the court on the basis that the court did not open a full-fledged investigation into crimes in the Philippines until after the country had withdrawn as an ICC member, effective in 2019.

Under the court’s rules, a withdrawal from the ICC does not affect matters “already under consideration by the court”.

According to Duterte’s defence, the so-called preliminary examination into the situation in the Philippines by prosecutors — announced just weeks before Manila said it would leave the court — was not enough to conclude that alleged crimes by Duterte were already under consideration.

Judges disagreed, and said that even if an official investigation sanctioned by judges only started in 2021, the prosecution’s preliminary examination was substantial enough to say it was a matter already under consideration. 

Thursday’s ruling does not address the other defence motion to stop the Duterte case on the basis that the 80-year-old is unfit to stand trial due to alleged cognitive decline. Judges have appointed a panel of medical experts who are due to file a report on Duterte’s fitness for trial by the end of this month.

A decision on how Duterte’s health will affect proceedings is not expected until mid-November.

(Reporting by Stephanie van den Berg, Editing by William Maclean)