Arrests within months if ICC crimes against humanity probe into Rodrigo Duterte’s drug war goes ahead: rights lawyer
- The International Criminal Court prosecutor Fatou Bensouda has asked for an investigation into the Philippine government, saying there is reason to believe it ‘deliberately’ killed up to 30,000 Filipinos in the crackdown between 2016 and 2019
- Experts say action by the court could now be swift and while the Duterte administration has vowed not to cooperate, it will not be able to bar the probe from proceeding
In a 57-page document, the ICC’s outgoing chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said her office’s review had found “a reasonable basis to believe” the Duterte government had “deliberately” killed 12,000 to 30,000 Filipinos between 2016 and 2019. It said the killings, which it called “widespread and systematic”, had been committed by state security forces.
It said the killings followed a “consistent fact pattern”, with police claiming victims had been shot because they were resisting arrest, but witness statements and other reports claiming victims had been executed.
“Other information suggests that most victims did not pose a threat to the police and were instead killed in a premeditated manner,” the report said.
The report mentioned several names: Duterte, then PNP chief Ronald dela Rosa, serving justice secretary Menardo Guevarra, and former justice secretary Vitaliano Aguirre. But La Viña said “the list of officials implicated will probably be long and open-ended”.