Prosecutors at the international criminal court (ICC) have charged former Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte with three counts of crimes against humanity, alleging his involvement in at least 76 murders as part of his “war on drugs”.
A heavily redacted charge sheet dated 4 July but made public on Monday laid out the accusations against the 80-year-old former leader, who is in ICC detention in The Hague.
The first count concerns his alleged involvement as a co-perpetrator in 19 murders carried out between 2013 and 2016 while Duterte was mayor of Davao City.
The second count relates to 14 murders of so-called “high value targets” in 2016 and 2017 when Duterte was president.
And the third charge is about 43 murders committed during “clearance” operations of lower-level alleged drug users or dealers.
These took place across the Philippines between 2016 and 2018, the prosecution alleged.
“The actual scale of victimisation during the charged period was significantly greater, as reflected in the widespread nature of the attack,” said the ICC prosecutors.
“The attack included thousands of killings, which were perpetrated consistently throughout the charged period,” they alleged.
The charges against Duterte stem from his years-long campaign against drug users and dealers that rights groups said killed thousands.
The arrest warrant issued for Duterte on 7 March contained one charge of crimes against humanity relating to 43 alleged murders.
The prosecutors’ charges came on the eve of what was scheduled to be Duterte’s appearance at the ICC to hear the accusations against him. However, that sitting was postponed as the court weighs whether Duterte is fit to hear the charges.
His lawyer Nicholas Kaufman has said his client is not able to stand trial “as a result of cognitive impairment in multiple domains”.
Kaufman has urged the ICC to postpone proceedings against Duterte indefinitely.
Duterte was arrested in Manila on 11 March, flown to the Netherlands that same night and has been held at the ICC’s detention unit at Scheveningen prison since.
At his initial hearing, he followed by video link, appearing dazed and frail, barely speaking.
