Duterte’s arrest ‘pure, simple kidnapping,’ Medialdea tells ICC

Duterte’s lawyer Salvador Medialdea, right, talks to Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan, left, before former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte appeared via video link before the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, Netherlands, Friday, March 14, 2025. Associated Press

MANILA, Philippines — Former President Rodrigo Duterte’s arrest is a “pure and simple kidnapping,” according to his legal counsel and former Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea.

Medialdea made such remarks in a manifestation during Duterte’s first appearance before the International Criminal Court (ICC) on Friday night (Manila time).

READ: ICC sets Duterte confirmation of charges hearing Sept. 23

“Two days ago, the whole world has witnessed the degrading fashion in which a former president of a sovereign country was bundled into a private aircraft and summarily transported to The Hague,” Medialdea said during the pretrial.

“To us lawyers, this would be called an extrajudicial rendition. To the less legally inclined, it was a pure and simple kidnapping. My client was denied all access to the legal recourse in the country of his citizenship and this all in the nature of political scores settling,” he added.

Medialdea also claimed that the ICC and President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. struck an “unlikely alliance” in arresting Duterte.

LIVE UPDATES: Rodrigo Duterte under trial at ICC

“Two troubled entities struck an unlikely Alliance, an incumbent president who wished to neutralize and choke the legacy of my client and his daughter, on the other hand, and a troubled legal institution subject to delegitimization and desperate for a prize catch and a legal show today, on the other hand,” he said.

“With this in mind, it is not surprising that my client was abducted from his country,” he added.

The ICC Pre-Trial Chamber I was led by Presiding Judge Iulia Antoanella Motoc, a Romanian.

Motoc said the ICC set Duterte’s confirmation of charges on September 23, 2025.

She said there would be no trial if the charges against Duterte were not confirmed and before the trial, Duterte can file a petition for interim release.

READ: Duterte attends ICC pre-trial hearing via video link

Duterte arrived in the Netherlands on Wednesday night (Manila time) and was turned over to the ICC’s Detention Center in Scheveningen, The Hague.

He was the subject of an arrest warrant by the ICC over crimes against humanity allegedly committed in the Philippines between November 1, 2011 and March 16 2019.

In March 2018, Duterte declared the Philippines’ withdrawal from the Rome Statute, the treaty that established the ICC.

However, the withdrawal took effect a year after or in March 2019, so the ICC retained jurisdiction over alleged crimes in the Philippines based on the time when the country was still a member.

The war on illegal drugs that took place during the Duterte administration claimed at least 6,000 lives, according to official government data.

However, human rights watchdogs and the ICC prosecutor estimated the death toll to be between 12,000 and 30,000 from 2016 to 2019. They said several of these cases were extrajudicial killings.