The Hague-based court has been investigating the mass killings linked to Duterte’s so-called war on drugs.
Former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte arrived at the Hague on Wednesday after being arrested in Manila the day before on the order of the International Criminal Court (ICC).
He is facing a charge of crimes against humanity linked to the deadly crackdown on drugs he oversaw while in office.
Police arrested Duterte at Manila’s airport as he returned from a trip to Hong Kong, where he was put on a plane to Dubai. Flight tracking data showed that the jet waited for hours in Dubai before taking off for Rotterdam-The Hague airport.
Philippine media posted a picture showing what they say is Duterte on the plane en route to the Netherlands.
Upon arrival, Duterte is set to be taken to a Dutch prison in the Hague suburb of Scheveningen that contains a special UN prison complex, about 2 kilometres from the ICC.
Other prisoners who have stayed there include former Presidents Slobodan Milošević of Serbia and Charles Taylor of Liberia, as well as Bosnian Serb General Ratko Mladić.
Both protesters and supporters of the former Philippine president gathered in front of the ICC on Wednesday.
One protester, Alodiq Santos, acknowledged the pain for those affected by the ICC’s decision but said she believed it was the right thing to do.
“It’s a very emotional experience for people. Politics has long been a patronage-like, personality-driven process in the country. And yeah, so we will, in the end of the day are all Filipino. So, it is hurting us. But we must stand firm to the principles that we all personally believe in,” Santos said.
Mass killings in the name of ‘war on drugs’
The ICC opened an inquiry in 2021 into mass killings linked to the so-called war on drugs overseen by Duterte when he served as mayor of the southern Philippine city of Davao and later as president.
Estimates of the death toll during Duterte’s presidential term vary, from the more than 6,000 that the national police have reported to the up to 30,000 claimed by human rights groups.
ICC judges who looked at prosecution evidence supporting their request for his arrest found “reasonable grounds to believe that Mr. Duterte is individually responsible for the crime against humanity of murder” as an “indirect co-perpetrator for having allegedly overseen the killings when he was mayor of Davao and later president of the Philippines,” according to his warrant.
Duterte withdrew the Philippines in 2019 from the ICC, in a move human rights activists say was aimed at escaping accountability.
The Duterte administration moved to suspend the global court’s investigation in late 2021 by arguing that Philippine authorities were already looking into the same allegations, arguing that the ICC — a court of last resort — therefore didn’t have jurisdiction.
Appeals judges at the ICC rejected those arguments and ruled in 2023 that the investigation could resume.
Within days of being taken into custody at the court’s detention centre, Duterte will be taken to court for a hearing.
Judges will confirm his identity, check that he understands the charges against him and set a date for a hearing known as a confirmation of charges at which a panel of pretrial judges will assess if prosecutors have sufficient evidence to merit sending him to a full trial.
Duterte could challenge the court’s jurisdiction and the admissibility of the case. While the Philippines is no longer a member of the ICC, the alleged crimes happened before Manila withdrew from the court.
That process will likely take months, and if the case progresses to trial, it could take years. Duterte can apply for provisional release from the court’s detention centre while he waits, though it’s up to judges to decide whether to grant such a request.
