The start of the month of September also marks the confirmation hearing on the charges of crimes against humanity versus former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte set on the 23rd.
Based on the schedule released by the ICC Pre-Trial Chamber I, the confirmation hearing on Duterte’s charges will be in four sessions, from 23rd to the 26th.
The confirmation hearing will start at 9:30pm and will be livestreamed on ICC’s website, with a 30 minute delay to protect sensitive information related to the case.
Regarding the hearing, both the defense and the prosecution team have 30 minutes each for their opening and closing statement, proposing 3-4 hours for their oral case presentation.
Based on the organisation of hearing submitted by the defense, the counsel aims to discuss the core legal issues in Duterte’s case, including the modes of liability and contextual requirements of the case.
In their submission, the defense team reiterated that Duterte did not commit any criminal offense.
On the Prosecution’s side, they are expected to spend 3 hours for the merit submissions, opening the discussions to the public but will be requesting private sessions to protect identities of the victims and witnesses.
The prosecution also proposed use of visual aids like presentations and videos for their case presentation, and also requested final observations to be limited through argument response.
Aside from the defense and prosecution, the Office of Public Counsel for Victims, representing the victims of the drug war, will also be having an oral case presentation.
30 minutes each for the opening and closing statements, while 2 hours to present the merits of the case and sufferings of the victims.
On the other hand, the victim’s camp appealed for the dismissal of the disqualification request against ICC Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan.
It can be recalled that the defense requested for Khan’s disqualification over alleged conflict of interest in the case.
Before he was appointed as the ICC Chief Prosecutor, Khan was a lawyer of war on drugs victims in the Philippines, with the defense arguing bias on his impartiality regarding the case.
OPCV argued that the disqualification request is untimely as it was filed four months after Duterte was detained in March.—Mia Layaguin, Eurotv News