FORMER President Rodrigo Duterte’s defense team has renewed its request for his release to an undisclosed country, subject to “any conditions deemed appropriate” by the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) Pre-Trial Chamber I.
Duterte’s lawyer, Nicholas Kaufman, submitted the appeal on August 19.
“For the sake of clarity, the Defence informs the Pre-Trial Chamber that the [REDACTED] continues to affirm its willingness to cooperate with the Court, to accept Mr. Duterte onto its territory, and to enforce conditions of release,” the document stated.
“All the Prosecution’s objections to the [REDACTED] serving as a receiving country for the purposes of interim release are either negligible or negotiable,” it added. Duterte’s camp also argued that the Pre-Trial Chamber I is aware that they face “considerable administrative hurdles” in obtaining the information needed to present a complete and properly authenticated non-disclosure case.
Previously, the ICC Pre-Trial Chamber I granted Duterte’s request to postpone the decision on his appeal for provisional release. Kaufman stated that the defense team has been “slow-walked and stymied” since May, and some results were only provided to them a few days ago.
He maintained that the prosecution team “mischaracterized” an undisclosed material as “incomplete and should not consequently be relied upon.” However, the prosecution contested this, maintaining that the defense’s submission was incorrect.
“The defense submitted that the issue of interim release needed to be resolved urgently, to the extent that it requested that the chamber reduce the Prosecution’s time limit to respond. In a complete reversal, the defense now asks the chamber, again on an urgent basis, not to rule on its request for interim release,” the prosecution stated.
“The fact that [REDACTED] was incomplete was known to the defense when it filed its request for interim release. It should not now be entitled to delay the adjudication of this matter simply so that it can supplement its original submission,” it added.
Duterte is currently in ICC custody after being arrested and sent to The Hague for alleged crimes against humanity committed during his administration’s bloody war on drugs. The anti-drug campaign, known as Oplan Tokhang, left at least 6,000 people dead.
