ICC probes drugs war complaint
MANILA: The International Criminal Court (ICC) has informed the Philippines that it has begun a preliminary examination of a complaint lodged against President Rodrigo Duterte that accuses him of crimes against humanity, his spokesman told reporters yesterday.
The examination of the complaint, which says Mr Duterte is complicit in the illegal deaths of thousands of Filipinos during his war on drugs, was “a waste of the court’s time and resources”, presidential spokesman Harry Roque said.
Mr Roque told a regular news briefing that he had discussed the issue for two hours the previous night with Mr Duterte, a former prosecutor, who he said was more than willing to face trial.
“He’s sick and tried of being accused,” said Mr Roque, a former Congressman and international law expert.
“He wants to be in court and put the prosecutor on the stand.”
About 4,000 mostly urban poor Filipinos have been killed by police in the past 19 months in a brutal crackdown that has alarmed the international community.
Mr Duterte has many times dared the ICC to bring him to trial and said he was willing to rot in jail to save Filipinos from the scourge of crime and drugs.
His tirades against the court are notorious, and include calling it “bullshit”, “hypocritical” and “useless”.
He has threatened to withdraw his country’s ICC membership and said lawyers in Europe were “rotten”, “stupid” and had a “brain like a pea”.
Police say those thousands of killings were during legitimate anti-drugs operations in which the suspects had violently resisted arrest.
Mr Duterte has repeatedly told police they can kill if their lives are in danger.
But human rights groups and Mr Duterte’s political opponents accuse him of inciting murder and say he refuses to investigate allegations that police are planting evidence, fabricating reports and executing users and dealers in cold blood.
Mr Duterte and t he police deny those accusations.
A Philippines lawyer filed the ICC complaint against Mr Duterte and at least 11 senior officials in April last year, saying crimes against humanity were committed “repeatedly, unchangingly and continuously” and killing drug suspects and other criminals had become “best practice”.