The former president will face trial after the court confirmed charges of crimes against humanity over his \u2018war on drugs\u2019.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Published On 23 Apr 2026<\/span>23 Apr 2026<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Judges \u2060at the International Criminal Court (ICC) have confirmed all three counts of murder as crimes against \u2060humanity against former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte and committed him to trial.<\/p>\n The judges on Thursday said there were \u201csubstantial grounds\u201d \u2060to believe Duterte, 81, played a key role in the murders of 76 people and the attempted murder of two others as part of his so-called \u201cwar on drugs\u201d, which prosecutors \u200csay killed thousands of civilians in the Philippines.<\/p>\n list of 4 items<\/span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n \u201cThe available evidentiary material shows the existence of a common plan between Mr Duterte and his co-perpetrators to kill alleged criminals in the Philippines, including those perceived or alleged to be associated with drug use, sale \u2060or production, through violent crimes including murder,\u201d \u2060the court said.<\/p>\n Prosecutors have said Duterte created, funded and armed death squads to kill suspected narcotics dealers and users when he \u2060was in power between 2016 and 2022.<\/p>\n Duterte was arrested in the Philippines last year, but denies the charges against him, insisting he instructed the \u2060police to kill only in self-defence.<\/p>\n His lead defence lawyer, Nick Kaufman, said the prosecution \u201ccherry-picked\u201d examples of his client\u2019s \u201cbombastic rhetoric\u201d and that he never intended to incite violence.<\/p>\n It is unclear whether Duterte will attend his trial. His defence team says he is mentally too weak to follow the proceedings.<\/p>\n In previous cases, it has taken the ICC up to a \u200cyear between \u200cthe confirmation of charges and the start of a trial.<\/p>\n Estimates of the death toll during Duterte\u2019s presidential term vary from 6,000, reported by police, to 30,000, reported by some human rights groups.<\/p>\n Director of Amnesty International Philippines, Ritz Lee Santos, hailed the ICC ruling as a \u201chistoric moment for victims and international justice\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cIt sends a clear message that those who are alleged to have committed widespread and systematic murder as a crime against humanity will one day find themselves in the dock, facing trial.\u201d<\/p>\n Maria Elena Vignoli, senior international justice counsel at Human Rights Watch, said Duterte\u2019s trial will \u201csend a powerful message that no one responsible for grave crimes is above the law, whether in the Philippines or elsewhere, and that justice will eventually catch up with them\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The former president will face trial after the court confirmed charges of crimes against humanity over his \u2018war on drugs\u2019. Published On 23 Apr 202623 Apr 2026 Judges \u2060at the International Criminal Court (ICC) have confirmed all three counts of murder as crimes against \u2060humanity against former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte and committed him to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20054,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20053","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-asia-pacific"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20053","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20053"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20053\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/20054"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![](\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/AMD_9281-min.jpg?resize=96%2C96&quality=80)
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