Former Philippines leader Rodrigo Duterte appears at International Criminal Court in The Hague

Lawyer for strongman behind deadly ‘war on drugs’ says his arrest was ‘a kidnapping’

Rodrigo Duterte appears in court at The Hague via video link (POOL/AFP via Getty)

The former president of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, appeared before judges at the International Criminal Court in The Hague on Friday, days after his arrest in Manila on murder charges linked to the deadly “war on drugs” that he oversaw while in office.

The 79-year-old, who arrived in the Netherlands on Wednesday after being arrested in Manila on charges of crimes against humanity, sounded frail as he spoke via video link from the detention centre about a mile away where he is being held.

For families of victims of the drugs crackdown, Mr Duterte's appearance in court was a long-awaited sign of hope.

"This is the first step to attaining justice,” lawyer Gilbert Andres, representing those families, said outside the court.

ICC judge Iulia Antoanella Motoc (EPA)

But Mr Duterte's many vocal supporters say the arrest was illegal. His lawyer, Salvador Medialdea, used the hearing to decry his arrest in Manila as a “pure and simple kidnapping”. He said Mr Duterte “was denied all access to the legal recourse in the country of his citizenship, and this all in the nature of political score-settling”.

Presiding judge Iulia Antoanella Motoc set a pre-trial hearing date of 23 September to establish if the prosecution’s evidence is strong enough to merit sending the case to trial. If a trial does go ahead, it could take years, and if Mr Duterte is convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

Estimates of the death toll during Mr Duterte's presidency vary, from the more than 6,000 reported by the national police to 30,000, as reported by human rights groups.

The ICC judge said that Mr Duterte had been allowed to participate in his first hearing by video link because of the long flight from Manila.

Mr Duterte, wearing a jacket and tie, listened to the hearing through headphones, often with his eyes closed. He spoke in English to confirm his name and his date and place of birth. He was not required to enter a plea. The hearing, which started about half an hour late, lasted around 30 minutes.

Mr Medialdea said that Mr Duterte had been under observation in hospital because of health problems.

The judge, addressing Mr Duterte, said: “The court doctor was of the opinion that you were fully mentally aware and fit.”

Mr Duterte was arrested on Tuesday amid chaotic scenes in the Philippine capital after returning from a visit to Hong Kong. He was swiftly put on a chartered jet and flown to the Netherlands.

His daughter, Sara Duterte, who is vice president of the Philippines, visited him in the court's detention centre on Friday and met supporters outside the court. Ms Duterte is a political rival of the current president.

She said her father was “in good spirits” and was being “well taken care of”, and added that his only complaint about the conditions in which he was being kept was that he misses Filipino food.

“There will be a day of reckoning for all,” she said.

Protesters in Manila call for the conviction of Duterte (EPA)

Meanwhile, activists marched in Manila to demand justice for the thousands of suspects killed in Mr Duterte's brutal crackdowns. Families of those killed watched the ICC proceedings on screens set up around the country, some of them holding portraits of their dead loved ones, as they listened to charges read out against Mr Duterte in a courtroom on the other side of the world.

Prosecutors accuse Mr Duterte of involvement as an “indirect co-perpetrator” in multiple murders, amounting to a crime against humanity, for allegedly overseeing killings from November 2011 until March 2019, first while he was mayor of the southern city of Davao and later as president of the Philippines.

According to the prosecution request for his arrest, Mr Duterte, as Davao mayor, issued orders to police and other “hitmen” who formed the so-called Davao Death Squads, or DDS.

Human rights groups and victims' families have hailed Mr Duterte's arrest as a historic triumph over state impunity, while the former president's supporters have slammed what they call the government's surrendering of a political rival to a court whose jurisdiction they dispute.

“We are happy and we feel relieved,” said 55-year-old Melinda Abion Lafuente, mother of 22-year-old Angelo Lafuente, who she said was tortured and killed in 2016.

Sara Duterte addresses supporters outside the International Criminal Court in The Hague during Friday's hearing (AFP via Getty)

Mr Duterte's legal team say the administration of current president Ferdinand Marcos Jr shouldn't have allowed the global court to take custody of the former leader because the Philippines is no longer a party to the ICC.

Mr Medialdea said that “two troubled entities struck an unlikely alliance. An incumbent president who wishes to neutralise and choke the legacy of my client and his daughter,” and “a troubled legal institution subject to delegitimisation”.

Judges who approved Mr Duterte's arrest warrant said the court has jurisdiction because the crimes alleged in the warrant were committed before Mr Duterte withdrew the Philippines from the court in 2019.

Reuters and Associated Press contributed to this report