Philippine Senate launching Dutete’s ICC probe

Manila, Philippines – the Philippine Senate said on Monday that he will carry out an official arrest and rapid transfer probe of former Rodrigo Duterte President last week, at the International Criminal Court, that is to try for alleged offenses against humanity.

The 79 -year -old, the first head of the Asian state accused by the ICC, is accused of crime against the humanity of murder in his campaign for years against drug users and dealers, about which the rights groups said they killed thousands.

The probe was initiated by Senator Imee Marcos, the sister of President Ferdinand Marcos, but a close friend of Duterte’s eldest daughter, Vice -President Sara Dutete.

The two families have had a spectacular fall since Marcos had a team with Duterte to win an electoral land slip in 2022. Since then, the latter has been accused under charges that include an alleged assassination plot against the president.

“As the chairman of the Senate Commission for Foreign Relations, I ask for an urgent investigation into the arrest of former President Rodrigo Roa Duterte, a problem that deeply divided the nation,” said IMEE Marcos in a statement on Monday.

“It is imperative to establish if the appropriate process was followed and to ensure that its legal rights are not only confirmed, but protected,” she said, adding: “Our legality and processes must remain primordial.”

Duterte was arrested at the Airport in Manila, on March 11, after a short trip to Hong Kong and was flew to the Netherlands, just a few hours later, where he was taken to the ICC.

The Senate set a public hearing for Thursday and invited the Top Police and other government officials to give evidence.

IMEE MARCOS has been pursuing a course largely independent of her brother on many problems, although she is applying for the re -election under the administration ticket at the May 12 elections.

A few hours after Dutete’s arrest, IMEE Marcos warned at a press conference that he cannot “only lead to problems”.

Separately, an ICC International Veteran lawyer was reached to join the former president’s defense team.

Nicholas Kaufman, a British-Israeli national, has previously represented customers in The Hague, including the former Congolese leader, Jean-Pierre Bemba and Aisha Kadhafi, the daughter of the deceased Libyan dictator.

“President (A) already named Nicholas Kaufman as a lawyer,” the Durte vice -president confirmed

“I had a meeting with him yesterday, and then we will have a meeting in person when he arrives this weekend,” she told reporters after her father’s father.

In an Email to AFP, Kaufman said he was “honored to ask the former President in the composition of his defense team in which my future role is still accurately decided.”

“Indeed, I look forward to denouncing the state sponsored abducted from the former president in a case of Hague without jurisdiction.”