Duterte camp requests to appeal ICC confirmation of charges

The camp for former president Rodrigo Duterte has requested permission from the International Criminal Court to file an appeal over the Pre-Trial Chamber I’s decision confirming the charges against him.

In a document dated April 29, defense counsel Nicholas Kaufman said the impugned decision raised two appealable issues.

The first issue was whether the Pre-Trial Chamber erred by adopting a “flexible approach” and overbroadly delineating the scope of the charges.

“The Pre-Trial Chamber effectively endorsed an open-ended formulation of the charges, permitting their factual scope to remain undefined and thereby failing to delineate the parameters of the case at the confirmation stage, as required by both practice and procedure,” Kaufman said.

He pointed out that by allowing the Prosecution to add more incidents as “examples” at a later stage, the Pre-Trial Chamber made it unclear for the Defense which incidents are actually part of the charges.

He also said the Pre-Trial Chamber not only adopted a “flexible approach" to some elements of the charges but also to essential components, including the “timing, location, and identity of the victims” and the “number of incidents and victims.”

“This erroneous approach resulted in charges being confirmed with an inordinately excessive degree of generality while failing to define the factual parameters of the case,” Kaufman said.

The second issue was whether the Pre-Trial Chamber erred in law by failing to articulate a reasoned evidentiary basis for confirming the charges.

“It did not link its factual findings to the evidence, nor did it engage with central Defence submissions, including the absence of a common plan. Instead, it accepted the Prosecution’s case at face value, without conducting the necessary incident-specific assessment required at the confirmation stage,” Kaufman said.

He added that the Pre-Trial Chamber found substantial grounds for a common plan between Duterte and alleged co-perpetrators but did not identify the evidence or address the Defense's objections.

“The Defence submitted that the Prosecution failed to establish the very existence of so-called co-perpetrators and that there was an agreement between them establishing the existence of a common plan,” Kaufman said.

He added that Duterte's camp also submitted material showing that the Davao Death Squad did establish a criminal plan, which the Pre-Trial Chamber failed to address.

Under Article 82(1)(d) of the Rome Statute, a party may seek appellate review of a decision if it raises an issue that could significantly affect the fairness or speed of the proceedings or the outcome of the trial, and if resolving it immediately could help move the case forward by correcting potential errors early.

ICC also said the status conference will be streamed on the ICC website with a 30‑minute delay.

On April 23, the ICC confirmed the charges of crimes against humanity against Duterte in connection with the killings in his war on drugs when he was mayor of Davao City and when he was President.

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.

Judge Joanna Korner was also elected as the presiding judge of the Trial Chamber III that will hear Duterte's ICC case.

In a three-page document, the trial chamber made known its decision to elect Korner as its presiding judge, less than a week after the ICC Presidency constituted the three-member chamber.

The other two judges are Keebong Paek and Nicolas Guillou.

READ: Who are the ICC judges assigned to Rodrigo Duterte's trial?

The former president was arrested in the Philippines by local authorities on March 11, 2025 and has been detained since then at the ICC Detention facility in Scheveningen in The Hague, Netherlands.—LDF, GMA News