Rody not withdrawing DQ bid vs ICC prosecutor

The defense team of former president Rodrigo Duterte is not withdrawing its bid to disqualify International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor Karim Khan from the proceedings.

- By JANVIC MATEO

"The request to disqualify Khan is 100 percent live and waiting determination by the Appeals Chamber," defense lawyer Nicholas Kaufman said in a message to The STAR yesterday.

Kaufman was reacting to a report where he was quoted as saying in a filing that the defense "will not impede the smooth running of proceedings by seeking the Prosecutor's disqualification."

He clarified that the quote came from a filing back in April that was recently made public.

"At the time, the Defense was not made aware of the true extent of Khan's conflict and bias. The Defense did not know who the Prosecutor had formerly represented and what the nature of that representation was," he said.

"That was only revealed to the Defense at the end of June when it became apparent that Khan had hidden material details concerning his former representation from the Court," he added.