The International Criminal Court has charged former Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte with crimes against humanity for his alleged role in the killings of dozens of people during his administration’s deadly anti-drugs crackdown.
Mr Duterte, 80, has been charged with three counts of crimes against humanity for the murders of at least 76 people during his “war on drugs”, for which he earned nicknames like “Duterte Harry” and “The Punisher”.
The ICC has been investigating mass killings during crackdowns overseen by Mr Duterte when he was mayor of the southern city of Davao and then as president.
Estimates of the death toll from the crackdown during Mr Duterte’s presidency vary, with the Philippine police putting it at about 6,000 and human rights groups claiming up to 30,000.
The ICC charge sheet against Mr Duterte, heavily redacted and dated in July, was made public on Monday.
Mr Duterte is the first Asian former president to be indicted by the international court.
The former president was arrested amid chaotic scenes at the Manila airport in March and flown to The Hague, where he was placed in detention.
The first charge against Mr Duterte concerns his alleged role as a co-perpetrator in 19 killings that took place between 2013 and 2016 in Davao while he was the mayor.
The second count relates to the murders of 14 “high-value targets” in 2016 and 2017 across the country when he was the president.
The third charge concerns the murders of 43 people during “clearance” operations of alleged drug users or pushers.
The ICC prosecutors argued that the real scale of victimisation “during the charged period was significantly greater, as reflected in the widespread nature of the attack”.
“The attack included thousands of killings, which were perpetrated consistently throughout the charged period,” the prosecutors said, according to AFP.
Rights groups and families of the victims had hailed Mr Duterte’s arrest and the court’s chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, called it “a crucial step in our continuous work to ensure accountability for the victims of the most serious crimes under ICC jurisdiction”.
The Duterte administration had moved to suspend the global court’s investigation in late 2021 by arguing that Philippine authorities were already looking into the same allegations and the ICC – a court of last resort – therefore did not have jurisdiction.
Appeals judges at the ICC in 2023 rejected the Duterte administration’s objections and ruled that the investigation could resume.
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 of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.
In May this year, Mr Duterte again won the mayorship of the city of Davao despite being in detention thousands of miles away in The Hague.
