ICC prosecutors: Duterte has no valid reason to skip pre-trial hearing

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February 20, 2026 | 10:15am

MANILA, Philippines — International Criminal Court prosecutors are asking the judges to compel former President Rodrigo Duterte to show up in his own pre-trial hearing next week, saying his health arguments have already been settled and his refusal to watch remotely is itself proof of his contempt for the court.

The filing, signed by ICC Deputy Prosecutor Mame Mandiaye Niang and released Thursday, February 19, came a day after Duterte's lawyer Nicholas Kaufman notified the Pre-Trial Chamber I that his client would not appear at the February 23-27 hearing in-person or otherwise.  

"The Prosecution respectfully requests that the Chamber reject Mr Duterte’s request to waive his right to appear at the confirmation hearing. There is no reasonable cause for Mr Duterte not to appear in person in court at the confirmation hearing," the filing read.

The confirmation of charges hearing next week is the proceeding that will determine whether Duterte faces a full trial for murder as a crime against humanity in relation to his drug war as Davao City mayor, and later, as president.

Duterte said in the letter that he continues to reject the ICC's jurisdiction, called his March 2025 arrest a "kidnapping" arranged by the Marcos administration, and said he was "old, tired, and frail" with no wish to sit through proceedings he would "forget within minutes."

Prosecutors rejected each of Duterte's grounds, according to the six-page filing.

On his health: the same pre-trial chamber, backed by an independent panel of three medical experts, already ruled in January that Duterte was physically and mentally fit to participate in the proceedings. 

The panel had also unanimously found that Duterte is an unreliable historian of his own health and mental fitness. His complaints, prosecutors wrote, cannot now be "recycled" as cause to hold the hearing without him present.

Prosecutors also said Duterte's refusal to even watch via video link reveals his continued contempt for the court.

"The fact that Mr Duterte has stated that he will not even follow the proceedings via video link demonstrates that his reasons to avoid appearing in public are not health related but rather due to his lack
of respect for the Court," the filing read.

The prosecution also pointed to the contradiction of the defense's own filings. On January 9, Duterte's counsels had submitted a document to the chamber complaining that the former president had "not been seen in court for ten months."

"Duterte’s sudden heel-turn on this matter now, days before he is due to face the substantive criminal charges made against him, should be rejected by the Chamber," the filing read.

Duterte's appearance during the hearing would be a "significant milestone" for the victims part of the proceedings, the prosecutors wrote. 

"As previously submitted by the Prosecution, it is also important that the proceedings are open and that Mr Duterte is visible while he defends the criminal charges made against him," the prosecution wrote.

Duterte has been held at the ICC detention facility in Scheveningen in the Netherlands since his March 2025 arrest. 

He has been charged with three counts of crimes against humanity over murders that took place as part of his violent anti-illegal drugs campaign. The former president has persistently maintained his innocence. 

The charges cover killings carried out between November 2011 and March 2019 — the period when the Philippines was still bound by the ICC's founding treaty, the Rome Statute. 

Duterte withdrew the Philippines from the treaty in 2018, widely seen as an attempt to shield himself from ICC scrutiny, but the court retained jurisdiction over crimes committed before the withdrawal took effect.