Kaufman admits: Rody’s release was a long shot

Succeeding in the “long-shot” interim release bid of former president Rodrigo Duterte would have been miraculous had it been granted by the International Criminal Court (ICC), according to his lawyer Nicholas Kaufman.

- By JANVIC MATEO

“Did | fail big time? I think that’s a bit of an exaggeration. We do our job. We're lawyers. No one has ever been released in this court at any rate for charges of crimes against humanity. If we had managed to release the former president, it would have been a miraculous event,” Kaufman told a Duterte supporter on Tuesday in The Hague.

“Yes, it was a long shot. We did our best. But it doesn’t mean that in the long run, we don’t have a chance of succeeding in bringing the former president back home to the Philippines,” he added.

Duterte remains in detention after the ICC Appeals Chamber recently denied the defense’s appeal on his request for interim release.