The ICC case against Duterte
>> Friday, May 19, 2017
PERRYSCOPE
Perry Diaz
Perry Diaz
On November 17, 2016,
President Rodrigo Duterte, before heading to Lima, Peru, told the media he just
might order the Philippines’ withdrawal from the International Court of Justice
(ICC).
He got the
idea following Russian President Vladimir Putin’s withdrawal of Russia’s
membership from ICC, who the day before had signed an order to formally withdraw
Russia’s signature from the founding statute of the ICC. He claimed
that ICC was “one-sided and inefficient” and that the ICC had failed to live up
to ”hopes of the international community.”
Russia
signed the Rome Statute in 2000 that set up the ICC, the world’s first
permanent court that investigates genocide, war crimes, and crimes against
humanity. Russia said she was unhappy with the ICC’s treatment of
the case on Russia’s short war with Georgia in 2008, saying the ICC ignored the
aggression of Georgia against civilians in South Ossetia – a pro-Russia
separatist region of Georgia. But the truth of the matter is it was
Russia who invaded Georgia in support of South Ossetia’s secession from
Georgia. Many believed that Putin’s withdrawal was triggered by
ICC’s published report that classified the Russian annexation of Crimea as an
“occupation.”
Other
countries that had served notice to withdraw from the ICC are Gambia, South
Africa, and Burundi, who had charged that the ICC had been used “for the persecution
of Africans and especially their leaders, while ignoring crimes committed by
the West.”
To date,
the ICC has opened investigations into 10 situations in: (1) the Democratic
Republic of the Congo; (2) Uganda; (3) the Central African Republic I; (4)
Darfur, Sudan; (5) Kenya; (6) Libya; the (7) Côte d'Ivoire; (8) Mali; (9) the
Central African Republic II; and (10) Georgia. The ICC has publicly
indicted 40 people. It has issued arrest warrants for 32 individuals and
summonses to eight others.
Seven
persons are in detention. Proceedings against 23 are ongoing: 10 are at large
as fugitives, four are under arrest but not in the Court's custody, eight are
at trial, and one is appealing his conviction. Proceedings against 17 have been
completed: three have been convicted, one has been acquitted, six have had the
charges against them dismissed, two have had the charges against them
withdrawn, one has had his case declared inadmissible, and four have died
before trial. [Source: Wikipedia]
Among them
was the late dictator Muammar Gaddafi and his son Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, who
were both killed in the aftermath of the Libyan revolution.
So far,
four had been convicted, to wit:
Jean-Pierre
Bemba Gombo – A politician in the Democratic Republic of the
Congo. He leads the Movement for the Liberation of the Congo (MLC),
a rebel group turned political party. He was elected president in
2006 and senator in 2007. On May 24, 2008, he was arrested near
Brussels on the basis of an arrest warrant issued by the ICC.
He was
charged with two counts of crimes against humanity and three counts of war
crimes. On March 21, 2016, he was convicted on these
charges. On June 21, 2016, he was imprisoned on a 19-year sentence
following a landmark conviction at the ICC. In September 2016, he
appealed against his conviction alleging a mistrial.
He awaits
further sentencing for corruptly influencing witnesses through means of bribery
during his trial for war crimes.
Germain
Katanga (aka Simba) – A former leader of the Patriotic Resistance
Force in Ituri (FRPI) in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. On October17,
2007, the Congolese authorities surrendered him to the ICC to stand trial on
six counts of war crimes and three counts of crimes against
humanity. The charges include murder, sexual slavery, rape, willful
killing, and directing crimes against civilians, to name a few.
On March 7,
2014, the ICC convicted Katanga on five counts of war crimes and crimes against
humanity as an accessory to the February 2003 massacre in the village of
Bogoro. The verdict was the second-ever conviction in the 12 years
of operation of the ICC. It followed the 2012 conviction of Thomas
Lubanga Dyilo.
Thomas
Lubanga Dyilo – A convicted war criminal from the Democratic Republic of
the Congo, he was the first person ever convicted by the ICC.
He led the
Union of Congolese Patriots (UPC) and was a key player in the Ituri
conflict. On March 17, 2006, he became the first person arrested
under a warrant issued by the ICC. He was charged of “conscripting
and enlisting children under the age of 15 and using them to participate
actively in hostilities.” On July 10, 2012, he was found guilty and
sentenced to 14 years of imprisonment.
Ahmad
al-Faqi al-Mahdi (aka Abu Tourab) – He was a member of Ansar Dine, a
Tuareg Islamist militia in North Africa. In 2006, he pleaded guilty
in the ICC for the war crime of attacking religious and historical buildings in
the Malian city of Timbuktu. He was the first person convicted by
the ICC for such a crime. He was sentenced to nine years in prison.
Complaint
against Duterte
Last
October, Sen. Leila de Lima called for an international investigation into the
country’s drug war, which had left 4,000 people dead during Duterte ‘s first
four months in office. De Lima, a former justice secretary said that
the extrajudicial killings (EJKs) must end and that the ICC should investigate
them.
The
following month, Duterte came to the attention of the ICC. An ICC
judge said she was closely monitoring Duterte’s “war on drugs” for possible
human rights violations.
Last April
24, attorney Jude Sabio, a lawyer for confessed hitman Edgar Matobato, filed a
77-page criminal complaint against Duterte and at least 11 senior government
officials in the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, the
Netherlands.
The
complaint alleges that Duterte and the others were liable for murder and called
for an investigation, arrest warrants, and a trial. Sabio said that
Duterte “repeatedly, unchangingly and continuously" committed crimes
against humanity and that under him, killing drug suspects and other criminals
has become "best practice."
The
complaint was based on the testimony of Matobato and another confessed hitman,
retired policeman Arturo Lascanas, and statements from rights groups and media
reports, including a recent Reuters series detailing the
killings. The question is: What are the chances of convicting
Duterte based on Sabio’s complaint? It’s not easy. And the fact that
Duterte would still be president until May 2022, it would be very unlikely to
bring him to trial.
The ICC’ing
of Duterte
Since 2002,
the ICC has received over 12,000 complaints or communications, of which nine
have gone to trial and six verdicts have been delivered. The ICC has
no powers of enforcement, and any non-compliance has to be referred to the
United Nations or the court's own oversight and legislative body, the Assembly
of States Parties.
Of the six
verdicts rendered by ICC, four were convicted as mentioned
earlier. But it took the cooperation of their governments to bring
them to justice. In the case of Duterte, it would be virtually
impossible for the Philippine government to turn him over to ICC. So
why even file a complaint against him?
While
Duterte is safe from ICC prosecution for as long as he remains on Philippine
soil, he can be served an ICC arrest warrant in another country where he may be
visiting, provided that country is a signatory to the Rome Statute and would
cooperate with the ICC, as in the case of Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo.
At the end
of the day, the ICC case against of Duterte, while it may seem like an exercise
in futility, would bring the killings to the consciousness of the international
community who can then use political pressure and economic sanctions including
the freezing of foreign bank accounts of Duterte and his cohorts. (PerryDiaz@gmail.com)
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