Atty. Harry Roque
MANILA, Philippines – Atty. Harry Roque slammed the International Criminal Court (ICC) for not addressing the “kidnapping” of former President Rodrigo Duterte as a means to divest the court of its jurisdiction over the case.
Former executive secretary Salvador Medialdea who stood as Duterte’s legal counsel during the hearing at Pre-trial Chamber 1 called the former president’s arrest and delivery to the ICC head quarters at The Hague, Netherlands as “pure and simple kidnapping.”
Upon his arrival from Hong Kong on March 11, Duterte was immediately intercepted by authorities, served an ICC warrant, detained at the Villamor Air Base and flown to the ICC all in less than 24 hours.
Their camp has been arguing that the extraction of the former president from the Philippines was procedurally erroneous making the arrest tantamount to kidnapping.
“We are very much disappointed that the court did not address the issue of kidnapping as a means to divest the court of jurisdiction,” Roque, who stands as among the members of DUterte’s defense team, told the media after the hearing.
“We think that the ICC should again set an example for promoting international justice and when kidnapping is allowed as a means of acquiring jurisdiction of the accused, we think these two are a travesty of justice,” he said.
Duterte’s defense team argue that the ICC should divest jurisdiction of the case because the Philippines is no longer a party to the Rome Statute, the treaty that created the tribunal.
In addition, supposed violations such as denial of an accused to a legal counsel, right to be brought to court and lack of proper immigration procedures, among others, make Duterte’s arrest unlawful according to his lawyers rendering the ICC’s jurisdiction over the former president void.
Roque, an international law expert and one of the only five ICC-accredited Filipino lawyers, cited a case of the case of Ibrahim vs Minister, a jurisdiction of the Constitutional court of South Africa that the illegality of the arrest should divest courts of its jurisdiction.
“It is unacceptable that we accept jurisdiction acquired through kidnapping especially when the kidnapping took place in the context of the Philippines where the court is now being used as a tool of oppression by the Marcos government,” Roque said.
The next hearing is scheduled on September 21 but Roque said the defense team will raise the issue of jurisdiction either on the implications of kidnapping or the Philippines’ withdrawal from the ICC on an earlier date.
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