THE HAGUE, The Netherlands: Holding former President Rodrigo Duterte criminally liable before the International Criminal Court (ICC) over killings linked to his anti-drug campaign would require prosecutors to piece together evidence like a “jigsaw puzzle,” a human rights lawyer said.
Joel Butuyan, one of the common legal representatives of victims in the crimes against humanity case against Duterte, said the prosecution would need to connect testimonies from victims and insider witnesses to establish liability if the case proceeds to trial.
“You would have the victim witnesses who will testify on the specific crime committed against their loved ones (and) you don’t expect them to testify pointing to Mr. Duterte. You have to weave it together with the evidence of the insider witnesses who will say that there was this plan to really use feelings and violence,” Butuyan told a press briefing on Wednesday (Feb 25).
“And then you weave it again to the statements of Mr. Duterte, saying that I will protect you, so and so,” he added.
Paolina Massidda, principal counsel of the ICC’s Office of Public Counsel for the Victims (OPCV), said insider witnesses would play a key role in the prosecution’s case.
“The insider is someone who was in the circle of Mr. Duterte and who became a prosecution witness,” she said.
Massidda, who has led the OPCV since 2005, said such testimonies were presented to Pre-Trial Chamber I during the first two days of the confirmation of charges hearing.
She cited an insider’s account claiming he was assured protection from prosecution as long as a killing he carried out was “cleared by the President.”
According to Massidda, the case rests on two elements: insider information describing a pyramid-like chain of command behind a “common plan” to carry out killings, and evidence of the “victimisation” of thousands who were killed without due process.
She also noted that interpreting the term “neutralise” to mean “kill” was not unprecedented in ICC proceedings. In the case of Congolese rebel leader Germain Katanga, who was convicted in 2014 of crimes against humanity and war crimes, the term was interpreted “normally … in the context in which they were pronounced,” she said.
“If I have a mouse in my house, okay, I cannot neutralise the mouse… But if I start speaking of neutralising, I target, and you read that with all the public statements in relation to: I am the person who will kill everybody who is dealing with drugs. I’m doing it for your country,” Massidda told reporters.
She said the meaning of the term would have to be assessed in context when Pre-Trial Chamber I judges evaluate the evidence.
The confirmation of charges hearing is set to resume on Thursday at 5 p.m. Manila time, when the defence is expected to present its arguments for the first time in the case accusing Duterte of three counts of murder over killings tied to his anti-narcotics campaign during his tenure as mayor and president. - Philippine Daily Inquirer/ANN
