Former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said on Thursday he takes full responsibility for his “war on drugs” as he prepares to face trial at the International Criminal Court (ICC) on charges of crimes against humanity.
In a video message posted on his Facebook page and viewed 10 million times, Duterte said it would be a “long” legal battle at the ICC, which took him into custody when his chartered flight landed at Rotterdam airport in The Hague on Wednesday night.
He was transferred to a detention centre on the Dutch coast.
The ICC prosecutor’s office applied for an arrest warrant on February 10. Judges believe the attacks on civilians were carried out while Duterte was in charge of the so-called death squad – civilian armed groups that helped the authorities crack down on drug traffickers. Also, according to the ICC, the former president was involved in murder, torture and rape from 2011 to 2019. According to the court, these crimes led to the deaths of thousands of people. He held the presidential post from 2016 to 2022.
Rodrigo Duterte, 79, was detained on March 11 at Manila airport after returning from Hong Kong. His lawyer Salvador Panelo called the arrest illegal, recalling that the Philippines withdrew from the ICC in 2019 at the initiative of Duterte himself. A hearing will be held soon to inform the former president of the charges and his rights under the Rome Statute, the ICC’s main document.
