Former Philippines president Duterte charged with crime against humanity by ICC

The International Criminal Court has charged the Philippines’ former president, Rodrigo Duterte, with crimes against humanity over the handling of a drug crisis in the country during his term.

The 80-year-old leader is accused of being responsible for the murders of several people as he waged a war against drugs, which killed thousands of small-time drug dealers, users and others were killed without trial.

A heavily redacted charge sheet dated July 4 but only made public on Monday lays out the accusations against the 80-year-old former leader, currently sitting in ICC detention in The Hague.

ICC deputy prosecutor Mame Mandiaye Niang said that the ex-president was an “indirect co-perpetrator” in the deaths of thousands, which the court alleges were carried out by others, including the police.

What are the counts against Duterte?

The first count concerns his alleged involvement as a co-perpetrator in 19 murders carried out between 2013 and 2016 while Duterte was mayor of Davao City.

The second count relates to 14 murders of so-called “High Value Targets” in 2016 and 2017 when Duterte was president.

And the third charge is about 43 murders committed during “clearance” operations of lower-level alleged drug users or pushers.

These took place across the Philippines between 2016 and 2018, the prosecution alleged.

“The actual scale of victimisation during the charged period was significantly greater, as reflected in the widespread nature of the attack,” said the ICC prosecutors.

“The attack included thousands of killings, which were perpetrated consistently throughout the charged period,” they alleged.

Duterte in the Hague

Rodrigo Duterte is the first former Asian head of state to be indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC), and the first suspect in more than three years to be transferred to The Hague, Netherlands, where the court is headquartered. He has been in custody there since March.

Meanwhile, Duterte’s supporters have slammed the court’s ruling, saying that the ICC is being used as a political tool by the country’s current president, Ferdinand Marcos, who had publicly fallen out with the powerful Duterte family.

With inputs from agencies