ICC prosecutor: Confirm PH lawyers not on Du30 team
Prosecutors of the International Criminal Court (ICC) pressed the pretrial chamber to confirm publicly that six Filipino lawyers, including former Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea and former Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador Panelo, are not on the defense team of former President Rodrigo Duterte.
The Office of the Prosecutor said in an April 24 filing it was making the request to prevent a “chilling effect” on potential witnesses during Duterte’s upcoming trial on charges of crimes against humanity in connection with his bloody war on drugs.
Last week, the ICC’s Appeals Chamber affirmed the tribunal’s jurisdiction over the former Philippine leader, while the Pre-Trial Chamber I cleared the way for trial upon finding reasonable grounds to hold Duterte “criminally responsible” for the killing of multiple drug war suspects.
No dates for the trial have been announced.
The prosecutor asked the chamber to reclassify as public a redacted document containing the response of Duterte’s defense team with regard to the role of Medialdea, Panelo, Martin Delgra III, Silvestre Bello III, Afredo Lim Jr. and Caesar Dulay, who were mentioned during the hearing on the confirmation of charges against Duterte in The Hague, the Netherlands, in February.
‘Assisted, supported’
The prosecutor earlier asked the chamber to order the defense led by British-Israeli lawyer Nicholas Kaufman to confirm on record that the lawyers were not actually part of Duterte’s legal team, contrary to what the defense suggested at the hearing.
Kaufman had said the defense was “ably assisted and supported by” the Filipino lawyers who were in attendance in the courtroom.
The ICC prosecutor said it wished to clarify whether the Filipino lawyers received any disclosures, confidential information and filings regarding the case, and whether they had been allowed privileged meetings or communications with Duterte in his detention quarters.
The prosecutor cited news reports quoting Kaufman as saying some of the lawyers had been “working with us (defense team) all along” and that they “actively contributed” and would “continue to provide valuable support.”
According to the prosecutor, the statements and actions of the defense had created the impression that the six lawyers were part of Duterte’s counsel.
Redacted from document
But in its response to the prosecutor’s request, the defense team “affirm[ed], confirm[ed], assur[ed] and guarante[ed]” that the six lawyers were not members of Duterte’s legal team.
This information, however, was redacted from the document containing the defense’s response that was made public on the ICC website.
According to the defense, the redaction was “merely to protect the dignity of those lawyers and does not impact on anything of concern.”
For the prosecution, however, “the redacted information should be made public in order to assuage the fears of potential witnesses and victims and to ensure there is no chilling effect on the prosecution’s ongoing investigations.”
Lawyer Ruben Carranza of the International Center for Transitional Justice said the concerns of the prosecutor were valid because of the possibility that the six lawyers could use the misconception of being part of Duterte’s legal team to influence or intimidate potential witnesses.
“If Kaufman does not publicly state that they are not lawyers of Duterte at the ICC, then they could create the false impression to Filipinos that they represent Duterte, that they speak for Duterte, that they can act on behalf of Duterte, or that they have access to information about witnesses, about evidence that affect the case, and that might mislead people in the Philippines,” Carranza told the Inquirer.
False impression
He added that this false impression gave additional weight to statements made by the six lawyers, such as Panelo, who recently described the ICC’s confirmation of charges against Duterte as a “foregone conclusion.”
ICC Assistant to Counsel Kristina Conti said the families of drug war victims were also worried about the defense team’s access to information, such as “the names and/or identification of 539 admitted victims, as well as an undisclosed number of potential trial witnesses.”
“Victims are concerned that the Filipino lawyers, who are based in the Philippines and may have intimate connections to the death squads, could access the information and act against victims’ interests,” Conti said in a Viber message to the Inquirer.
“Because they are not sworn to or formally engaged in the case, there is nothing that prevents them from doing so,” she added.
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