NICHOLAS Kaufman, legal counsel for former president Rodrigo Duterte, has asserted that the prosecution will be unable to demonstrate a “causal link” between Duterte’s alleged orders and the death of one of the 78 identified victims in the International Criminal Court (ICC) case concerning the war on drugs.
Kaufman’s argument centers on the difficulty of proving a direct line of causation connecting Duterte’s directives to the specific individuals responsible for the deaths of alleged drug war victims. This challenge is crucial to the ICC’s ability to establish Duterte’s culpability in the alleged crimes against humanity.
The defense’s strategy hinges on undermining the prosecution’s ability to provide concrete evidence linking Duterte’s pronouncements to the actions of law enforcement or other actors involved in the anti-drug campaign. Without a clear causal link, Kaufman contends, the case against Duterte is significantly weakened.
