ICC-accredited British-Israeli lawyer Nicholas Kaufman and former President Rodrigo Duterte

MANILA, Philippines – British-Israeli international law expert Nicholas Kaufman, lead defense counsel, is confident that former President Rodrigo Duterte will get an acquittal and will accord the “strongest defense” possible for the troubled former state chief. 

“I’m very confident of the strongest defense possible and I’m very confident that he will be acquitted indeed, even at the earliest stage possible,” Kaufman told the media on Tuesday (March 18). 

Duterte made his first appearance at Pre-trial Chamber 1 of the International Criminal Court where his identity was confirmed and his rights were read. He is set to appear next on the September 23 for the confirmation of charges. 

Kaufman said their camp will not let the months go in vain as “we will be filing all necessary applications in due course.” 

While short of words, Kaufman said the manner by which the former president was arrested and flown to The Hague in the Netherlands to face trial before the ICC is one of the former president’s strongest defense. 

“Well that point is completely denied all his rights in the Philippines. That will obviously be a major argument in the course of this defense,” he said. 

Former presidential spokesperson Harry Roque meanwhile is still on a hang in officially joining Duterte’s defense team. 

Vice President Sara Duterte who organizes her father’s legal team said Roque is not included yet in the defense panel because they want him to focus on securing his asylum status first. 

Roque on Tuesday said he will be filing for political asylum in the Netherlands on the business of defending the former president – the reason why he cannot come home to face the arrest warrant served against him by the House of Representatives Quad Committee over his failure to submit documents explaining his alleged sudden wealth increase. 

Evidence vs Duterte airtight 

While Duterte’s camp believes he has the ‘strongest defense’ possible, ICC-accredited lawyer Joel Butuyan equally believes that Duterte, on the other hand, provided “strongest evidence” against himself with his public declarations of killing drug offenders during his presidency. 

“The biggest, the strongest, the most important witness of the prosecution is the accused, Mr. Duterte himself,” Butuyan said at a press conference organized by the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines (FOCAP) on Monday. 

“The application for warrant made by the ICC prosecutor shows that the evidence gathered and relied upon by the prosecutor is replete with many videos of the many declarations of Mr. Duterte where he encouraged police officers to kill drug suspects, he promised rewards and promotion, he encouraged even parents to kill their own kids, and for the public to kill drug suspects,” Butuyan said. 

Duterte is facing charges for crimes against humanity over various killings in the Philippines during his term as mayor of Davao City and President of the country.

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