Rodrigo Duterte asks ICC for provisional release

Former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte (2016-2022) has requested the International Criminal Court (ICC), citing his advanced age, to be granted provisional release while awaiting trial for crimes against humanity.

The petition was filed in court on Thursday and notes that an unidentified country “has expressed to the Defense its prior agreement, in principle, to receive Mr. Duterte on its territory during the period of his provisional release.”

The defense said Duterte would not flee after being released in the host country, which is located “well beyond the geographic scope of the alleged crimes.”

Among the reasons given by the former President's main lawyer, Nicholas Kaufman, to justify his release is his age, 80, which he described as a “compelling humanitarian reason”.

Kaufman added that Duterte no longer has the same “influence or power” he had during his presidency, when he launched a war on drugs, during which he publicly and repeatedly called for the killing of drug users and dealers.

This is despite the fact that on May 12, Duterte was re-elected as mayor of Davao in Mindanao, southern Philippines, a position he held before running for head of state.

The midterm elections were marked by the dispute between the candidates of Vice President Sara Duterte, daughter of Rodrigo Duterte, and her former ally, the current President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr.

Candidates supported by Marcos Jr. for the Senate, the upper house of the Philippine parliament, won fewer seats than expected in the elections, leading the President to demand, on May 22, the resignation of all members of the Cabinet.

About 6,000 people have died in anti-drug operations and extrajudicial killings during Duterte's term, according to police figures, while civil society organizations put the death toll at more than 30,000.

The ICC accuses the former president of murder, a crime against humanity, between 2011, when the Philippines became a member of the court and Duterte was still mayor of Davao, and 2019, when the then president withdrew the Asian country from the Rome Statute.

The court ruled it had jurisdiction to examine alleged crimes that occurred while the country was still a member of the ICC and so ordered Duterte's detention in March.

Marcos Jr. approved Duterte's extradition to The Hague.

The official start of the trial is scheduled for September 23.