Prosecution, victims' counsel reject Rodrigo Duterte's bid to reframe ICC charges
Former president Rodrigo Duterte's bid to have the crimes against humanity charges against him before the International Criminal Court reframed has drawn opposition from both the prosecution and representatives of the alleged victims.
His camp earlier filed a motion directing the prosecution to refile a set of charges as the current ones are "not fit for purpose and should be struck out."
"Rather than containing a clear set of settled facts and circumstances supporting separate counts (being crimes under the ICC Statute), the document containing the charges has been framed around illustrative non-exhaustive incidents, grouped under topical headings," they said.
"The Defence submits that the charges, as currently framed, violate the accused’s right to be informed in detail of the nature, cause and content of the charges against him," they added.
According to them, the new charges must "properly inform the accused of the case he needs to meet."
However, in two separate responses filed on Sept. 10, both parties argued that the motion should be dismissed.
The Office of the Prosecutor said that the charges have already been settled by the ICC’s Pre-Trial Chamber, which confirmed the charges against him and committed him to trial.
They pointed out that the chamber had “carefully verified their proper formulation in accordance with the established law of this Court.”
The prosecution also said Duterte’s camp was mixing up two separate issues: the form of the charges and his right to be given enough information to prepare his defense.
According to them, the charges do not necessarily have to list every alleged killing or criminal act. What matters is that the charges have clear limits in terms of the time period, location, and nature of the alleged crimes.
"The Defence is not required to prepare to defend against any alleged unlawful killing, but only those for which the Prosecution has given sufficient notice," they said.
"Duterte is not charged with individual responsibility for all those acts even if proven. Rather, he will only be held responsible only for those incidents to which it is proved beyond reasonable doubt that he contributed, with intent and knowledge, provided: (a) they fall within the scope of the confirmed charges, and (b) he has received sufficient notice of those incidents," they continued.
The representatives of the alleged victims likewise urged the judges to reject the defense's request, describing it as an attempt to reopen issues that had already been decided during the proceedings to confirm the charges.
They also defended the use of illustrative, non-exhaustive incidents, maintaining that this approach is particularly appropriate in Duterte’s case because the alleged crimes cover a long period and a wide geographical area.
"Charges need not exhaustively enumerate every underlying criminal act but may instead be delineated through temporal, geographical and other material parameters, provided that the relevant facts and circumstances remain identifiable," they said.
“Requiring an exhaustive enumeration of every incident in a case alleging large-scale criminality would risk artificially narrowing the case and failing accurately to reflect the extent of the victimisation,” they said.
The Trial Chamber has yet to rule on Duterte’s motion.
The next status conference is scheduled for Sept. 16, while the trial will begin on Nov. 30 and is expected to continue until next year.
