The 79-year-old Duterte didn’t show up at the court in The Hague but appeared briefly on a video screen from the detention center where he is being held, about a mile (1½ kilometers) away.
Presiding Judge Iulia Antoanella Motoc set a pretrial hearing date of Sept. 23 to establish if prosecution evidence is strong enough to merit sending the case to trial. If a trial does go ahead, it could take years, and if Duterte is convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.
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The judge said that Duterte had been allowed to participate in his first ICC hearing by videoconference because he had just come off a long flight. Duterte, wearing a jacket and tie, listened to the hearing through headphones, often with his eyes closed. He spoke in English to confirm his name, and his date and place of birth.
Duterte’s lawyer, Salvador Medialdea, said that his client had been “abducted from his country.” “He was summarily transported to The Hague,” Medialdea said. “To lawyers it’s extrajudicial rendition. For less legal minds it’s pure and simple kidnapping.” His lawyer called Duterte’s arrest “political score-settling” in the Philippines.
Medialdea said that Duterte had been under observation at a hospital because of health issues. The judge, addressing Duterte, said: “The court doctor was of the opinion that you were fully mentally aware and fit.”
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Duterte, the first former Asian leader detained by the ICC, was read his rights and formally informed of the charges of crimes against humanity that the court’s prosecutors filed against him after a lengthy investigation. His supporters contest the arrest and say the court doesn’t have jurisdiction. The hearing, which started about a half-hour late, lasted around 30 minutes.
Estimates of the death toll during Duterte’s presidential term vary, from the more than 6,000 that the national police have reported and up to 30,000, according to numbers from human rights groups.
