{"id":3898,"date":"2025-09-08T10:09:16","date_gmt":"2025-09-08T14:09:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/?p=3898"},"modified":"2025-09-08T10:09:17","modified_gmt":"2025-09-08T14:09:17","slug":"icc-postpones-hearings-for-former-philippine-president-rodrigo-duterte-over-health-concerns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/?p=3898","title":{"rendered":"ICC postpones hearings for former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte over health concerns"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) \u2014 The International Criminal Court announced on Monday it was postponing a pretrial hearing for former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte over concerns about his health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lawyers for the 80-year-old filed a motion in August for the proceedings to be delayed indefinitely, saying their client is \u201cnot fit to stand trial.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prosecutors at the ICC accuse Duterte of crimes against humanity<\/a> for deadly anti-drugs crackdowns he oversaw while in office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The exact concerns over the former president\u2019s health are not specified and the filings in the case are heavily redacted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A pretrial panel of judges have allowed for a \u201climited postponement\u201d to give the court time to determine \u201cwhether Mr Duterte is fit to follow and participate\u201d in the proceedings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rights groups and families of victims hailed Duterte\u2019s arrest in March<\/a>, and the court\u2019s chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, called it \u201ca crucial step in our continuous work to ensure accountability for the victims of the most serious crimes under ICC jurisdiction.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Supporters of Duterte criticized the administration of current Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., Duterte\u2019s political rival, for arresting and surrendering the former leader to a court whose jurisdiction his supporters dispute.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ICC has been investigating mass killings in crackdowns overseen by Duterte when he served as mayor of the southern Philippine city of Davao and later as president. Estimates of the death toll of the crackdown during Duterte\u2019s presidential term vary, from the more than 6,000 that the national police have reported up to 30,000 claimed by human rights groups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Duterte administration moved to suspend the global court\u2019s investigation in late 2021 by arguing that Philippine authorities were already looking into the same allegations<\/a>, and the ICC \u2014 a court of last resort \u2014 therefore didn\u2019t have jurisdiction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Appeals judges at the ICC ruled in 2023 the investigation could resume and rejected the Duterte administration\u2019s objections. Based in The Hague, the Netherlands, the ICC can step in when countries are unwilling or unable to prosecute suspects in the most serious crimes, including genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) \u2014 The International Crimina […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3899,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3898","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3898","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3898"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3898\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3900,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3898\/revisions\/3900"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}