ICC Cites 4 Main Arguments in Rejecting Duterte Camp’s Request
ICC – The International Criminal Court junked the request of the camp of former President Rodrigo Duterte to disqualify two (2) judges over the jurisdiction issue.
Former Pres. Rodrigo Roa Duterte is currently under the custody of the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands. Last March 11, he was arrested by the Philippine authorities amid an arrest warrant issued by the foreign court. On the same, he was sent to The Hague via Dubai.
In the 2025 Elections, amid his detention in The Hague, former Pres. Rodrigo Duterte won mayor in Davao. His camp are planning on the option to take so he can have his oath-taking. The former President’s confirmation of charges before the ICC is set on September 23.
Before she returned to the Philippines in the first week of April, Vice Pres. Sara Duterte finalized the legal team of former Pres. Rodrigo Roa Duterte before his trial in the International Criminal Court. The legal team is led by British-Israeli lawyer Nicholas Kaufman.
Aside from Kaufman, French lawyer Dov Jacobs is also part of the legal team of the former President. Kaufman was confident over their jurisdictional argument. They stressed that the Philippines is no longer a participating party under the Rome Statute.
Previously, the International Criminal Court claimed that there were allegations of crimes that allegedly took place when the country was still a member of the Rome Statute. The Court claimed that the prosecutors are set to present more than 8,500 pages of written evidence against Duterte.
The camp of former Pres. Rodrigo Roa Duterte has requested the ICC to disqualify two (2) judges from deciding on the jurisdiction issue of the case. Based on a report on ABS-CBN News, the two (2) judges that the former President’s camp seeks to disqualify are judges Reine Adélaïde Sophie Alapini-Gansou and María del Socorro Flores Liera.
Duterte’s camp stressed that Alapini-Gansou and Liera were the two (2) judges that approved the commencement of the probe against the former President. It stressed that it was “not reasonable to expect a judge who has recently expressed a highly publicized position on a specific legal issue to depart from that view”.
Based on the report, the ICC junked the request of former Pres Rodrigo Duterte’s camp to disqualify two (2) judges from ruling in the jurisdiction issue. The court cited four (4) main arguments which are as follows:
- A high threshold must be satisfied to rebut the presumption of judicial impartiality
- Judges regularly adjudicate the same, or similar, legal issues
- Adjudicating on jurisdiction more than once is explicitly foreseen in the Statute
- The Judges’ preliminary determinations on jurisdiction do not amount to perceived bias
The ICC further stressed that the early determinations of the two (2) judges were “preliminary in nature” and were done without any observation about the defense regarding the matter. It stressed that the previous ruling of the two (2) judges does not equate to “any perceived bias in the case”.
Previously, Vice Pres. Sara Duterte claimed that her name is also allegedly in the lCC list of personalities who might be arrested.