International Criminal Court (ICC) Attorney General Karim Kahn has suspended an investigation into alleged rights abuses in the deadly Philippine war on drugs in the Philippines by President Rodrigo Duterte’s government, according to court documents released to the public.
ICC judges in September approved an investigation into the Philippine authorities’ deadly war on drugs, as they may have committed crimes against humanity, they said. Activists speak of numerous extrajudicial executions by law enforcement with the tacit support of President Duterte.
According to court documents, Kahn wrote that Manila submitted a postponement request on November 10. Governments may request the ICC to adjourn a case if they conduct their own investigations and prosecutions for the same acts.
“The prosecutor’s office has temporarily suspended its investigative activities while assessing the scope and legal consequences of the postponement request,” Kahn wrote, adding that he would seek additional information from the Philippines.
The president of the Philippines has repeatedly stated that the ICC has no jurisdiction, adding that he will not cooperate in his investigation, which according to him is “illegal”.
The Philippines withdrew from the ICC in 2019. But the Court, based in The Hague, emphasizes that it continues to have jurisdiction over crimes committed in the Asian archipelago while it was still a member state.
“There is no inconsistency with the request for a moratorium,” Salvador Panelo, Duterte’s chief legal adviser, said on Saturday, without elaborating. Duterte, 76, has said the ICC has no jurisdiction to prosecute him.
A group of lawyers from the Philippines called on the ICC not to extinguish the ray of hope for the families of the victims of the war on drugs.
“We urge the ICC not to allow itself to be influenced by the allegations now being made by the Duterte government,” the National Bar Association, which represents the families of some of the victims, said in a statement.
The judiciary in the Philippines is “extremely slow and useless for the majority of poor victims and those without representation,” he said.
The Human Rights Watch called the Duterte government’s claim that the existing domestic mechanisms do justice to the citizens absurd. “Hopefully the ICC will find this to be a ploy,” said Brad Adam, director of the Observatory for Asia, in a statement.
The ICC ruling is a boost for Duterte, who this week launched his campaign for next year’s Senate election. His constitution forbids him from running for re-election.
Rodrigo Duterte was elected in 2016 following an election campaign with extreme political rhetoric, during which he promised to eradicate the drug scourge in the Philippines by killing tens of thousands of lawbreakers, sparking international outcry.
In its nearly two decades of existence, the ICC has convicted five men of war crimes and crimes against humanity, all leaders of African paramilitary groups from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mali and Uganda.
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