Kaufman: Duterte's defense to prove state policy to kill is complete fiction at ICC Trial

The lawyer of former President Rodrigo Duterte said the defense will prove during the trial before the International Criminal Court that the supposed state policy to kill suspects in his administration's war on drugs was "complete fiction."

Defense counsel Nicholas Kaufman made the remark after the ICC Pre-Trial Chamber I confirmed the crimes against humanity charges of murder and attempted murder against Duterte more than a year after he was arrested and detained, and two months after the confirmation hearings.

“The Pre-Trial Chamber found that the crucial word ‘neutralize’, used to define a so-called State or organizational policy, was understood by those involved in the operations to mean to ‘kill’," Kaufman said.

"This is hardly surprising when the whole of the Prosecution’s case, as pasted into the concluding paragraphs of the Pre-Trial Chamber’s decision, is based on the uncorroborated statements of vicious self-confessed murderers acting as cooperating witnesses," he added.

Kaufman said the credibility of the prosecution witnesses was never assessed at the confirmation hearing.

"They will now be excused prosecution and will most likely be rehoused with new identities at considerable cost to the international community funding the activities of the Office of the Prosecutor," Kaufman said.

"At trial, the defense will prove that the aforementioned 'state policy' is a complete fiction. The defense will also show that the evidence of the very same criminal witnesses, so gleefully peddled by the former President’s many detractors, has zero weight," he added.

'Crimes against humanity'

The ICC on Thursday confirmed the charges of crimes against humanity against former President Rodrigo Duterte in connection with the killings in his war on drugs when he was mayor of Davao City and when he was President.

In a 50-page document, the ICC Pre-Trial Chamber I committed Duterte to face trial on the charges as confirmed, and ordered the court registrar to transmit the decision confirmation of charges and the record of these proceedings.

The confirmed charges are the following:

• Count 1: Murder as a crime against humanity in Davao City during the mayoral period of at least the 19 victims, between 2013 and around June 2016, through indirect co-perpetration, ordering and/or inducing, and/or aiding and abetting;
• Count 2: Murder as a crime against humanity of ‘high-value targets’ in locations across the Philippines during the presidential period of at least the 14 victims between around July 2016 and July 2017, through indirect co-perpetration, and/or ordering and/or inducing and/or 25(3)(c) (aiding and abetting); and 
• Count 3: Murder and attempted murder as crimes against humanity in barangay clearance operations in locations across the Philippines during the presidential period of at least the 45 victims (43 murders and two attempted murders) between around July 2016 and September 2018, through indirect co-perpetration, ordering and/or inducing, and/or aiding and abetting.
• “The Chamber finds that there are substantial grounds to believe that Mr. Duterte is criminally responsible for the crimes charged in Counts 1-3 as an indirect co-perpetrator, and/or for ordering and/or inducing, and/or for aiding and abetting the commission of the crimes,” the pre-trial chamber said.

—NB, GMA News