Philippines ex-leader Duterte arrested on ICC warrant over drug killings

Philippine police have arrested former president Rodrigo Duterte after the Global Felony Court docket (ICC) issued a warrant accusing him of crimes in opposition to humanity over his fatal “conflict on pills”.

The 79-year-old was once taken into police custody in a while after his arrival at Manila airport from Hong Kong on Tuesday.

Newest stories from native media say he’s on board a non-public jet at the airport tarmac. Previous, his daughter mentioned he was once being “forcibly” despatched to the Hague within the Netherlands, the place the ICC sits.

A press convention from the presidential palace is predicted quickly.

Duterte has introduced no apologies for his brutal anti-drugs crackdown, which noticed hundreds of other people killed when he was once president of the South East Asian country from 2016 to 2022, and mayor of Davao town ahead of that.

Upon his arrest on Tuesday, he wondered the foundation for the warrant, asking: “What crime [have] I dedicated?” in a video posted on-line via his daughter Veronica Duterte.

“If I dedicated a sin, prosecute me in Philippine courts, with Filipino judges, and I will be able to permit myself to be jailed in my very own country,” he mentioned in a later video.

According to his arrest, a petition was once introduced on his behalf within the Perfect Court docket – urging them to not agree to the request.

In it, Duterte instructed the court docket to chorus from “implementing or helping within the enforcement of any ICC-issued warrants… and to droop all sorts of cooperation with the ICC whilst the case is pending”.

Consistent with a remark from the court docket’s spokesperson, the previous president also known as for a declaration that the Philippines withdrawal from the ICC in 2019 “successfully terminated” its jurisdiction over the rustic and its other people.

The ICC says it nonetheless has authority within the Philippines over alleged crimes dedicated ahead of the rustic withdrew as a member.

A few of Duterte’s supporters rallied on the gates to Villamor Air Base, inside the airport compound, the place the previous president was once taken following his arrest. State media mentioned greater than 370 police were deployed there and to different “key places” to verify peace was once maintained.

Whilst his supporters have criticised the arrest, activists have known as it a “historical second” for individuals who perished in his drug conflict and their households, the Global Coalition for Human Rights within the Philippines (ICHRP) mentioned.

“The arc of the ethical universe is lengthy, however lately, it has bent against justice. Duterte’s arrest is the start of duty for the mass killings that outlined his brutal rule,” mentioned ICHRP chairman Peter Murphy.

Duterte were in Hong Kong to marketing campaign for the approaching 12 Might mid-term elections, the place he had deliberate to run once more for mayor of Davao.

Photos aired on native tv confirmed him strolling out of the airport the use of a cane. Government say he’s in “just right well being” and is being cared for via executive docs.

“What’s my sin? I did the whole lot in my time for peace and a relaxed lifestyles for the Filipino other people,” he informed a cheering crowd of Filipino expatriates ahead of leaving Hong Kong.

Duterte’s arrest marks the “starting of a brand new bankruptcy in Philippine historical past”, mentioned Filipino political scientist Richard Heydarian.

“That is about rule of regulation and human rights,” he mentioned.

Heydarian added that government had arrested Duterte promptly on the airport as an alternative of letting the subject take its direction during the native courts to “steer clear of political chaos”.

“Duterte’s supporters have been hoping they might move berserk in relation to public rallies and [use] all forms of delaying ways… [to] drag issues on till the warrant of arrest loses momentum,” he mentioned.

The call for for justice in Duterte’s drug conflict is going “hand in hand” with the political pursuits of his successor, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr, Heydarian mentioned.

The Duterte and Marcos households shaped an impressive alliance within the closing elections in 2022, the place in opposition to the elder Duterte’s needs, his daughter Sara ran as Marcos Jr’s vice-president as an alternative of in the hunt for her father’s submit.

The connection unravelled publicly in contemporary months as the 2 households pursued separate political agendas.

Marcos to start with refused to co-operate with the ICC investigation, however as his dating with the Duterte circle of relatives deteriorated, he modified his stance, and later indicated that the Philippines would co-operate.

Duterte served as mayor of Davao, a sprawling southern city, for 22 years and has made it probably the most nation’s most secure from road crimes.

He used town’s peace-and-order recognition to forged himself as a tough-talking anti-establishment flesh presser to win the 2016 elections via a landslide.

With fiery rhetoric, he rallied safety forces to shoot drug suspects useless. Greater than 6,000 suspects have been gunned down via police or unknown assailants all through the marketing campaign, however rights teams say the quantity might be upper.

A prior UN document discovered that the majority sufferers have been younger, deficient city men and that police, who would not have seek or arrest warrants to behavior area raids, systematically pressured suspects to make self-incriminating statements or possibility going through deadly power.

Critics mentioned the marketing campaign centered street-level pushers and did not catch big-time drug lords. Many households additionally claimed that the sufferers – their sons, brothers or husbands – have been merely within the mistaken position on the mistaken time.

Investigations in parliament pointed to a shadowy “loss of life squad” of bounty hunters focused on drug suspects. Duterte has denied the allegations of abuse.

“Don’t query my insurance policies as a result of I be offering no apologies, no excuses. I did what I needed to do, and whether or not or now not you imagine it… I did it for my nation,” Duterte informed a parliament investigation in October.

“I hate pills, make no mistake about it.”

The ICC first took notice of the alleged abuses in 2016 and began its investigation in 2021. It coated circumstances from November 2011, when Duterte was once mayor of Davao, to March 2019, ahead of the Philippines withdrew from the ICC.

Since taking energy, Marcos has scaled again Duterte’s anti-narcotics marketing campaign and promised a much less violent technique to the drug downside, however masses of drug-related killings were recorded all through his management.

Duterte stays broadly widespread within the Philippines as he’s the rustic’s first chief from Mindanao, a area south of Manila, the place many really feel marginalised via the leaders within the capital.

He incessantly speaks in Cebuano, the regional language, now not Tagalog, which is extra widely-spoken in Manila and northerly areas.

When he stepped down in 2022, just about 9 in 10 Filipinos mentioned they have been happy together with his efficiency as president – a ranking unseen amongst his predecessors for the reason that recovery of democracy in 1986, in step with the Social Climate Stations analysis institute.

His populist rhetoric and blunt statements earned him the moniker “Donald Trump of the East”. He has known as Russian President Vladimir Putin his “idol” and below his management, the Philippines’ pivoted their overseas coverage to China clear of the USA, its long-standing best friend.

Marcos restored Manila’s ties with Washington and criticised the Duterte executive for being “Chinese language lackeys” because the Philippines is locked in sea dispute with China.

China’s overseas ministry mentioned on Tuesday that it was once “intently tracking the advance of the location” and warned the ICC in opposition to “politicisation” and “double requirements” within the arrest of Duterte.

Duterte’s daughter and political inheritor, Sara Duterte, is tipped as a possible presidential candidate in 2028. The incumbent, Marcos, is barred via the charter from in the hunt for re-election.

Further reporting via Virma Simonette in Manila and Kelly Ng in Singapore