ICC opens hearing for Philippines ex-president Duterte

DW News · Feb 23, 2026 · Collected from RSS

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The International Criminal Court (ICC) on Monday began pretrial hearings for former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte. The 80-year-old is facing three counts of crimes against humanity for dozens of killings allegedly carried out as part of his brutal crackdown on drug crime — first as mayor of Davao City and later as national president. As proceedings got underway in The Hague, prosecutors told ICC judges that Duterte played a "pivotal" role in the extrajudicial killings of suspected drug users and dealers, often using fear and financial rewards to encourage armed death squads. "For some, killing reached the level of a perverse form of competition," prosecutor Mame Niang said in his opening statement. The indictment accuses Duterte, who was president from 2016 to 2022, of involvement in at least 78 murders. He "authorized murders and personally selected some of the victims," Niang said. Duterte, who did not appear in the courtroom, "stands behind his legacy resolutely," his lawyer Nicholas Kaufman said. "He maintains his innocence absolutely."In this file photo from 2024, Duterte takes the oath during a Philippine Senate inquiry on the so-called war on drugsImage: Aaron Favila/AP Photo/picture alliance What happens next? The Hague hearing is not a trial, but allows prosecutors to lay out their case in court. Judges will then have 60 days to examine the evidence and determine whether it is strong enough to put Duterte on trial. Duterte was arrested in Manila in March last year and flown to the Netherlands. He has since been held in the ICC's detention unit at Scheveningen Prison. On Monday, rival groups of demonstrators gathered outside the court. "We have waited for this for so long, for years we have waited, but we did not relent," Llore Pasco, whose two sons were shot dead in 2017, told reporters at a news conference ahead of the hearing. Aldo Villarta, a 35-year-old chef, however, said it was a "slap in the face" for the Philippines that an international court was trying the country's former leader. "We've already suffered so long from colonization," he said. The number of people killed during Duterte's violent drug crackdowns vary. National police have reported at least 6,000 dead, but human rights organizations say as many as 30,000 people were killed. Edited by: Elizabeth Schumacher