Ex-Philippine leader Duterte arrested over drug war at ICC's request

Court says there are grounds to believe he's responsible for crackdown that killed thousands

- Mara Cepeda

MANILA - Former president Rodrigo Duterte, once the Philippines' firebrand leader, is in custody after the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for crimes against humanity over the brutal drug war that defined his time in power.

The tribunal had sought assistance from global police organisation Interpol to enforce the arrest warrant. It was served as soon as Mr Duterte, 79, landed in Manila on the morning of March 11, a day after a campaign event in Hong Kong with his political party's senatorial candidates.

The Philippine National Police (PNP) cooperated, as President Ferdinand Marcos Jr has signalled his administration's willingness to comply with the ICC directive.

Mr Duterte was detained for about nine hours at the military-run Villamor Airbase before he was escorted onto a chartered jet that was to take him to the ICC headquarters in The Hague, Netherlands, to face charges. The plane took off past 11pm. His trial date is yet to be announced.

In the 15-page warrant dated March 7, a copy of which was obtained by The Straits Times, the ICC's three-judge panel said there were reasonable grounds to believe that the killings of drug suspects that Mr Duterte ordered between 2011 and 2019 were "both widespread and systematic".

That period covered Mr Duterte's bloody crackdown both as mayor of the southern Philippine city of Davao from 2011 to 2016, and his nationwide war on drugs during the first half of his six-year presidential term from 2016 to 2019. He ran the drug war until the end of his presidency in 2022.

"The Chamber finds reasonable grounds to believe that Mr Duterte is individually responsible for the crime against humanity of murder," the ICC judges wrote.