Counsel for victims seeks more time to respond to DQ case vs ICC prosecutor

The lawyer for the victims in former president Rodrigo Duterte’s drug war has asked the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) Appeals Chamber to grant her a “varying standard time limit” to respond to the defense team’s disqualification case against ICC Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan.

- By RAYMUND ANTONIO

In a four-page document released by the ICC on Aug. 15, Office of the Public Counsel for Victims (OPCV) Principal Counsel Paolina Massidda said that it needs more time to respond to the defense team’s request to disqualify Khan.

She argued that at the time of the defense’s filing of the disqualification petition on Aug. 6, the OPCV did not have access to the documents that “primarily formed the basis of the Defence Request.”

The ICC Pre-Trial Chamber I only granted her access to the documents five days—on Aug. 11—after the defense’s filing.