Lawyers Kristina Conti, Nicholas Kaufman and Joel Butuyan
MANILA, Philippines – Lawyer Nicholas Kaufman, lead counsel of former President Rodrigo Duterte has denied claims that their camps have proposed restrictions on the identification process for victims participating in the investigation of the International Criminal Court (ICC) into the drug war.
In an interview on Tuesday (The Hague time), Kaufman slammed human rights lawyers Joel Butuyan and Kristina Conti who represent the victims for making such claims.
“Well, this whole thing about the judges rejecting my proposal, that never happened. All that happened was that there were two activists victims’ representatives by the names of Joel Butuyan and Kristina Conti, who made all sorts of assertions in the press that I had asked to restrict victims participation in the process by limiting the ID documents that could be used. That never happened,”
In addition, Kaufman said:“All I was doing was relying on what the Philippines Social Security System requires for ID to be verified in the Philippines.”
Kaufman was referring to their camp’s “observations” which they submitted to the ICC’s Victims Participation and Reparations Sector (VPRS), a section in ICC that assists victims in participating in the proceedings and applying for reparations in the event of a conviction.
“So, this is not a question of the judges rejecting something that the defense asked for. This is the response that the defense made to the VPRS, which is the internal court unit, which is responsible for assessing victims applications,” he said.
“That’s all we did, we made observations. We didn’t make a request which was rejected. That’s a big lie,” he added.
Earlier this week, Butuyan and Conti, both ICC-accredited Filipino lawyers, lauded the international tribunal’s “rejection” of the Duterte camp’s supposed plea to restrict the identification process of drug war victims participating in the case.
“As one of the counsels helping the families of victims, I welcome the ICC’s resolution denying the defense team’s position that victims should only be recognized if they can show a national ID or passport,” Butuyan said in a statement.
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