ICC rejects Rody’s interim release plea

Duterte family accepts ruling with ‘peaceful hearts’

- JANVIC MATEO

Former president Rodrigo Duterte will remain in detention in the Netherlands, after appeals judges of the International Criminal Court (ICC) yesterday rejected the appeal on his request for interim release.

The ICC Appeals Chamber issued in open court its unanimous decision denying the appeal lodged by Duterte’s lawyers against the earlier decision of pretrial judges that denied his request for conditional release to another country.

The decision was read by Judge Luz del Carmen Ibáñez Carranza, who was appointed presiding judge for Duterte’s appeal on interim release.

"The Appeals Chamber notes that the Pre-Trial Chamber reached its conclusions in relation to the risks... on the basis of a comprehensive assessment of the information before it,” Carranza said.

“In the present case, having rejected the three grounds of appeal presented by the defense in the appeal brief, the Appeals Chamber unanimously confirms the impugned decision," she added, referring to the Sept. 26 decision of the Pre-Trial Chamber I that rejected Duterte's interim release request.

The defense team raised three grounds in its appeal: that the pre-trial judges erroneously found that the former president poses a risk, that it erred in its rejection of the guarantees proposed by the state willing to receive him and that it failed to take into account humanitarian considerations in assessing the right to interim release.

But the five-member Appeals Chamber, which is composed of a different set of judges, said the defense failed to identify errors in the assailed decision.

The other members of the chamber include Judge Tomoko Akane, also ICC president; and Judges Solomy Balungi Bossa, Gocha Lordkipanidze and Erdenebalsuren Damdin.

Duterte was not present during the hearing and was represented by his counsel Nicholas Kaufman.