Duterte’s legal counsel: 'No great surprises' in prosecution evidence

THE HAGUE – For former President Rodrigo Duterte’s counsel, “there are no great surprises” regarding the personalities and information included in the pieces of evidence disclosed to them by the prosecution.

In an interview with GMA Integrated News, Atty. Nicholas Kaufman declined to detail his client’s reaction upon seeing the evidence. However, Kaufman explained his team is “slowly but surely” going through what he described as an “immense amount of evidence.''

“I’m not entitled to discuss exactly what the prosecution has disclosed to us, nor am I going to tell you what defense strategy is and what Mr. Duterte's reaction to those items of evidence exactly is. However, what I can tell you is that, as far as the defense is concerned, there are no great surprises here.”

Based on the International Criminal Court's Registry, the eleventh and twelfth batches of evidence submitted by the Office of the Prosecutor between July 1 and July 4 altogether contain 2,315 documents.

“Each of these documents sometimes contains something up to 100 pages. So, it’s an immense amount of evidence. We have a team of about nine people, all of whom are devoted to reviewing that evidence,'' Kaufman said.

''We’re all skilled in data management. We all know how to use the IT systems of the ICC, and we're slowly but surely reviewing all of that evidence, working towards the September confirmation hearing.”

Immediate release

Duterte's defense team argued in a newly redacted document dated July 10 that the ICC lacked jurisdiction to try him for crimes against humanity related to his war on drugs while he was president and mayor of Davao City.

Kaufman also acknowledged “any initiatives” calling for Duterte’s release, including a recent resolution by Senator Alan Peter Cayetano urging the Philippine government to advocate for placing the former president into some form of house arrest.

“I think that any initiative by any Filipino to bring the former president back home [is welcome], whether it be in the Philippines embassy–I'm not sure whether that would be possible given the current administration–or whether it be just back home to the place where he grew up, to the place where he wants to pass away, God forbid that it be many years in the future.”

“But it’s every Filipino’s right to be tried in front of a Filipino court, in front of a Filipino judge, and to be prosecuted by a Filipino accuser-slash-prosecutor,” Kaufman added.

'Health bulletins' not appropriate

Since Duterte’s detention, the public has seen him only once–on a live stream at his initial appearance before the ICC Pre-Trial Chamber I on March 14. His daughter, Vice President Sara Duterte, has since given updates about his physical condition, adding on July 8 that his medical officer at Scheveningen Prison did not report anything urgent about his state.

Two days later, the younger Duterte denied what she called a viral photo purportedly showing her father as bedridden. She also deferred requests about the possibility of releasing health bulletins about or pictures of the former president to his lawyer.

“Publishing health bulletins concerning an ICC suspect is not considered appropriate,” Kaufman said. “It’s an invasion of medical privacy. What I can say is that the former president will have to be brought before the court at some stage in the near future. And then the whole world will see the condition that he’s currently in.”

ICC spokesperson Fadi El Abdallah declined to comment on Duterte’s condition, but said the court “adopts all necessary measures” to ensure the health of the suspects in its detention center.

When asked if Duterte is in good health, exactly four months since his detention, Kaufman repeated his usual line: “He is in good spirits.”

“When I say that he’s in good spirits, I'm talking about a man who’s 80 years old and has all the medical conditions, mental conditions, and psychological conditions that accompany a [person] of that age. He's been in prison for almost four months now,'' Kaufman said.

''He was taken to prison under certain circumstances beyond his control. You can just imagine what type of effect that has on an 80-year-old man with all the conditions and ailments that an 80-year-old man would normally have. I can’t tell any further than that.” —VBL, GMA Integrated News