Duterte lawyer tells ICC ex-President 'kidnapped'

The lawyer of former president Rodrigo Duterte, who attended the hearing via video link, said his client was "abducted from his country."

"He was summarily transported to The Hague. To lawyers it's extrajudicial rendition. For less legal minds it's pure and simple kidnapping," Medialdea said during Duterte's pre-trial at the International Criminal Court on Friday afternoon at The Hague in the Netherlands.

Medialdea also said Duterte was suffering "debilitating medical issues," adding: "Other than to identify himself, he is not able to contribute to this hearing."

Presiding Judge Iulia Motoc had allowed him to follow proceedings in absentia due to his long flight to The Hague.

Duterte, 79, was wearing a blue suit and tie and sounded frail as he answered the questions of the judge as to the confirmation of his name and date of birth.

Duterte appeared sleepy during the proceedings, closing his eyes frequently for long periods.

But Motoc told Duterte: "The court doctor was of the opinion that you were fully mentally aware and fit". She set a date of September 23 for the next stage of the process, a hearing to confirm the charges.

Medialdea told the court of the Duterte camp's position that Philippine authorities kidnapped the former president.

'Unlikely alliance'

He adverted to what he called "an unlikely alliance" between President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. and "a troubled legal institution desperate for a prize catch and a legal show."

"Two days ago, the whole world witnessed the degrading fashion in which the former president of a sovereign country was bundled into a private aircraft and somberly transported to the Hague. To us lawyers, this would be called an extrajudicial rendition," Medialdea said.

"To the less-legally inclined, this is a pure and simple kidnapping. My client was denied all access to the legal recourse in the country of his citizenship, and this all in the nature of political score-settling," he added.

Medialdea told the court of the elderly Duterte being taken to the hospital for observation and how he saw him only on Friday morning "with less than an hour to discuss legal issues."

Motoc said, "There will be a full procedure that will unfurl leading up to the confirmation of charges that will enable Mr. Duterte to raise all the matters that you have just raised with regard to the warrant of arrest, with regard to the crimes committed, with regard to the charges and any other matters associated with his arrest and the matters of jurisdiction of the court."

"You have the opportunity to do this throughout these proceedings leading up to the actual confirmation of charges hearing," she added.

Crimes against humanity

Duterte stands accused of the crime against humanity of murder over his years-long campaign against drug users and dealers that rights groups said killed thousands.

In the prosecutor's application for his arrest, he said Duterte's alleged crimes were "part of a widespread and systematic attack directed against the civilian population in the Philippines."

"Potentially tens of thousands of killings were perpetrated," the prosecutor alleged of the campaign that targeted mostly poor men, often without proof they were linked to drugs.

Victims' families have welcomed the trial as a chance for justice, while Duterte supporters believe he was "kidnapped" and sent to The Hague amid a spectacular fall-out with the ruling Marcos family.

A group of family members, lawyers and human rights activists was to gather in Manila to watch a livestream of the ICC hearing, said organisers Rise Up and the Duterte Accountability Campaign Network.

'Kill all of you'

According to international law experts, his whirlwind arrest and surrender to the ICC offers a welcome boon to the embattled court, which is being attacked from all sides and sanctioned by the United States.

"I see the arrest and handing over of Duterte as a gift at an important moment in time," Willem van Genugten, Professor of International Law at Tilburg University in The Netherlands, told AFP.

Earlier Friday, his daughter Sara Duterte, vice president of the Philippines, said she had submitted a last-minute bid to get the hearing moved.

"We are praying and hoping that the court will grant our request to move the initial appearance just so that we can properly sit down with the former president and discuss the legal strategies since we haven't talked to him yet," she told AFP outside the court.

Duterte supporters gathered outside the hulking glass building in the Hague shouting "bring him home."

But Ecel Sandalo, an anti-Duterte demonstrator, told AFP the fact the former president was on trial had given him "hope that despite all the injustices in the world, there are still small victories that we can celebrate."

As he landed in The Hague, the former leader appeared to accept responsibility for his actions, saying in a Facebook video: "I have been telling the police, the military, that it was my job and I am responsible."

In his application for arrest, the prosecutor quotes from some of Duterte's pronouncements when he was running for president.

He is cited as saying the number of criminal suspects killed "will become 100,000... I will kill all of you" and the fish in Manila Bay "will become fat because that's where I will throw you."

At the confirming of charges hearing, a suspect can challenge the prosecutor's evidence.

Only after that will the court decide whether to press ahead with a trial, a process that could take several months or even years. —Agence France-Presse with reports from Jiselle Anne C. Casuian and Sherylin Untalan/BAP/NB, GMA Integrated News