Will Philippine ex-president Duterte stand trial at the ICC, and for how long?
Judges are set to decide by late April whether to send Duterte’s case to trial, with any proceedings expected to move at a ‘glacial pace’
However, even if the judges decide to proceed with the trial, observers predict that the proceedings will progress at a “glacial pace”, potentially taking years to reach a ruling.
Duterte, who governed the Philippines from 2016 to 2022, was surrendered to the ICC in March last year over his sweeping anti-narcotics crackdown that Philippine police acknowledged killed more than 6,000 suspects, though rights groups put the true toll as high as 30,000.
At pre-trial hearings that began in February, Duterte was accused of three counts of crimes against humanity – covering murder and, in one count, attempted murder – as “an indirect co-perpetrator” who had conspired with police to kill drug war victims.
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How Rodrigo Duterte’s deadly anti-drug campaign in the Philippines led to his downfall
Prosecutors pointed to the notorious Davao Death Squad – a shadowy group long accused of carrying out extrajudicial killings in Duterte’s southern home city – saying he had “personally selected some of the targets” as mayor and later as president, and had told police whom to take out, with cash rewards as incentives.