ICC Charges Duterte With Crimes Against Humanity
Prosecutors at the International Criminal Court charged former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte with three counts of crimes against humanity. These charges come from his violent anti-drug campaigns, which rights groups say led to thousands of illegal deaths.
Duterte is now in jail in The Hague and will have to answer for things he did while he was mayor and president. Some people say that this case could set international standards for holding political leaders accountable for violent crackdowns.
Alleged Policy of Extrajudicial Killings
Prosecutors say that Duterte made rules to systematically “neutralize” suspected criminals in both the national government and Davao City. He is said to have hired death squads, given them weapons, and let them get away with killing people.
Court documents list at least 76 murders, but prosecutors say the real number is much higher. Analysts say that the fact that so many people are killed shows how state power can be used to silence people who are seen as threats.
Duterte’s Public Stance on the Drug War
After his arrest, Duterte said he would take responsibility for the violent campaigns against drug users and dealers. He has said in the past that he had “no apologies, no excuses” for his harsh methods.
Duterte said that what he did was right because it was necessary to protect the safety of the Filipino people. Critics say that his refusal to apologize shows that extrajudicial violence is becoming an acceptable way to run the government.
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Specific Counts Detailed in Court Filings
The first charge says that Duterte was involved in 19 murders while he was mayor of Davao City from 2013 to 2016. The second charge says that he was responsible for the deaths of 14 high-value suspects while he was president from 2016 to 2017.
The third charge is for 43 murders that happened during police “clearance” operations that were meant to catch lower-level drug users and dealers. These counts show that he led a planned and organized pattern of state-sanctioned violence.
Formation of the Davao Death Squad
Court papers say that Duterte was in charge of making the infamous Davao death squad. He is said to have started members by spraying them with wine and giving them guns from a basket.
Prosecutors say that recruits were often people who owed him or the police money, which made them loyal. This ritualized initiation showed loyalty while also tying people to the violent mission of targeted killings.
Deadly Policies Spread Across the Country
Duterte is said to have put Davao allies in powerful national positions when he became president so that death squads could keep working. The prosecution says that this larger network included police officers, private gunmen, and other people who worked for the government.
Duterte said in public that he would kill 100,000 criminals and that Manila Bay would be full of bodies. Analysts say that this kind of talk led to systemic violence and showed that the government supported widespread extrajudicial practices across the country.
Trial Delays Amid Health Concerns
This week, Duterte was supposed to go to the ICC to formally face these charges. The hearing was put off while the judges decide if he is mentally fit to stand trial.
His lawyers say that his cognitive decline makes it impossible for him to fully participate in the case. Advocates for human rights say that delays related to health care should not make it harder to hold accountable the thousands of people who are said to be victims.
