1 week ago
9
Upgrade to High-Speed Internet for only ₱1499/month!
Enjoy up to 100 Mbps fiber broadband, perfect for browsing, streaming, and gaming.
Visit Suniway.ph to learn
Cristina Chi - Philstar.com
May 5, 2026 | 3:34pm
MANILA, Philippines — The ICC prosecution has asked judges to throw out former president Rodrigo Duterte's appeal bid, saying his lawyer's weeks-long media campaign calling the court corrupt and politically driven undermines the very request he is asking it to grant.
ICC Deputy Prosecutor Mame Mandiaye Niang told the Pre-Trial Chamber I that Nicholas Kaufman's public remarks on the court's integrity "completely contradict" the defense's stated concern for the case's legitimacy.
Kaufman "has already been reminded – on two occasions – of his obligations under the Code of Conduct by this Chamber," Niang wrote.
"Despite this, he continues to exhibit a pattern of deplorable conduct in relation to the public statements he makes about this case and the Judges of this Court," the filing read.
Niang asked judges to reject Duterte's request to appeal the April 23 decision confirming all three crimes against humanity charges against the former president.
On April 23 — the same day the ICC Appeals Chamber upheld the court's jurisdiction over the Duterte case — Kaufman gave media interviews in which he said the court is "in a state of crisis," its judges have "nothing to do," and they confirmed charges against Duterte to "justify their workload."
"The only thing that it has currently in its docket of substance is the case against the former President of the Philippines. There's no one else here in the Detention Centre," Kaufman was quoted as saying, according to the filing. He added that Trial Chamber judges "have to justify their workload" and the case "will keep the Court occupied for the years to come."
In the same interview, Kaufman said: "Sometimes you feel as if you're banging your head against the wall at this Court. You can argue as hard as you want and present the strongest legal arguments that you want, but ultimately, you're faced with political dimensions which are beyond your control."
The ICC prosecution highlighted these statements in its argument against Duterte's appeal bid and said these are "offensive and categorically false."
They also "contravene his obligation to be respectful and courteous in his relations with the Chamber pursuant to article 7 of the Code of Conduct," the filing read.
Grounds for appeal unmet – ICC prosec
On the substance of the appeal request, the prosecution argued that Duterte's lawyers raised no genuinely appealable issues under Article 82(1)(d) of the Rome Statute, which requires that an appeal significantly affect the fair and expeditious conduct of the proceedings and that immediate resolution by the Appeals Chamber would materially advance the case.
The defense's 18-page filing, signed by Kaufman and dated April 29, challenges the Pre-Trial Chamber's April 23 ruling on two grounds: that it adopted an "impermissibly flexible" approach that left the scope of the charges undefined, and that it confirmed them without buffing up the evidence behind its conclusions.
The prosecution expressed its objection to both arguments.
On the first, it said the Pre-Trial Chamber I followed established jurisprudence from the Ntaganda and Said cases in defining the charges through temporal and geographic parameters. This, it said, was a broader approach that is necessary given the scale of Duterte's alleged criminality: a "widespread attack against the civilian population consisting of the commission of numerous crimes over an extended period of time and, with regard to the presidential period, in a large territory."
On the second ground, the prosecution said the chamber clearly explained its evidentiary approach in that it cited witnesses and evidence cited during the confirmation hearing.
The chamber was not obligated to assess every piece of evidence individually at the pre-trial stage, the prosecution said.
The prosecution also rejected the defense's argument that the appeal would speed up proceedings.
Appealing already-settled legal questions, the prosecution said, would more likely cause delays than prevent them.
This is not the first time the court has flagged Kaufman's conduct. The prosecution noted the chamber had already reprimanded Kaufman twice: once over his language that implied the court had made a biased decision in appointing experts, and again over a defense filing that it said risked compromising the confidentiality of prosecution witnesses.
Despite those warnings, the prosecution said Kaufman has continued a pattern of public statements that "contribute to the significant disinformation campaign surrounding this case in the Philippines."
The Pre-Trial Chamber I unanimously confirmed all charges against Duterte on April 23, finding substantial grounds to believe he is responsible for the crimes against humanity of murder and attempted murder committed between November 1, 2011 and March 16, 2019, in the context of the so-called war on drugs.
The next step for now is for the Pre-Trial Chamber to decide whether to grant or deny Duterte's request to appeal.
If denied, the case moves to a Trial Chamber for trial.
ICC-accredited lawyer Kristina Conti has said the trial may start between October 2026 and February 2027.
