Duterte says he cannot be tried for 4,000 drug war killings – and threatens ‘comeuppance’ for prosecutor
Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs has led to almost 4,000 extrajudicial killings – which he says he cannot be tried for because it’s not ‘a crime’
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Friday declared himself beyond the jurisdiction of an International Criminal Court (ICC) probe into thousands of deaths in his “drugs war” and threatened an ICC prosecutor with “comeuppance”.
In a typically bombastic speech Friday, a day after the ICC announced a preliminary inquiry into alleged crimes against humanity, Duterte renewed threats to withdraw from the world’s sole war crimes tribunal, and said local laws do not specifically ban extrajudicial killings.
Duterte, whose bloody anti-drug crackdown has seen almost 4,000 people killed since he took power in 2016, acknowledged that a previous Manila government ratified the treaty that established the ICC, but claimed it had not passed into local law because of a technicality.
“There is no f***ing provision of extrajudicial killing. It is not defined anywhere so how can you now accuse me of a crime?” said the president, speaking in his home city of Davao about the Hague investigation.
Do not go into that adventure. It’s a messy one. You will know. You will get your comeuppance
Police say they have killed nearly 4,000 drug suspects in the narcotics crackdown, while rights groups claim the toll is around three times the official numbers.