MANILA, Philippines—Former President Rodrigo Duterte has asked the Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to allow him to skip the open-court judgment on his appeal challenging the court’s jurisdiction over his crimes against humanity case.
Without citing any reasons, Duterte told the chamber that he was waiving his right to appear in person before the court on April 22, when it delivers its decision on the appeal on the ICC’s jurisdiction.
“I hereby instruct my lawyers to hear the aforementioned judgment in my place,” the detained former leader wrote in a signed letter dated April 10.
The typewritten letter was annexed to the defense’s “request to waive appearance” filed by Duterte’s lead counsel, Nicholas Kaufman. The court released the document to the public on April 13.
READ: ICC affirms jurisdiction over Rodrigo Duterte case
Jurisdiction is one of the issues that Duterte’s lawyers have been challenging, along with earlier rulings on interim release and the results of his health status. The appeal on jurisdiction seeks the reversal of the decision of Pre-Trial Chamber (PTC) I in October last year.
As in the last hearings at the ICC during the confirmation of charges in February, Duterte had also requested not to appear in person or virtually in court, saying he does not recognize the international tribunal’s jurisdiction.
He told the PTC in a letter that he was “old, tired, and frail,” and that he was accepting the likelihood of dying while in detention at the Scheveningen prison complex in The Hague, the Netherlands.
He is facing three counts of murder as a crime against humanity as an “indirect coperpetrator” of the brutal killings in his so-called war on drugs. /mcm