ICC rejects Duterte’s request to disclose exchanges with doctors
The Pre-Trial Chamber 1 of the International Criminal Court (ICC) has rejected former President Rodrigo Duterte’s appeal to disclose the communications between the court’s registry and the independent panel of experts that assessed his fitness to stand trial.
In a five-page ruling dated Dec. 23 and signed by Presiding Judge Iulia Antoanella Motoc, the chamber said there was no reason that would warrant the granting of the defense’s request.
According to the Pre-Trial Chamber (PTC) 1, Duterte’s legal team filed a request on Dec. 10 in which they asked that it order the ICC Registry—the international court’s administrative body—to reveal all its communications with the three experts appointed to assist the chamber in its determination of the former president’s fitness to stand trial.
The PTC 1 said the requested copy of communications included any instructions or directives issued to the experts in the form of emails, letters and/or notes taken during telephone conversations, as well as specific documents furnished to them for the purposes of their evaluations such as ICC filings and Duterte’s medical records.
Information available
While the chamber noted the defense’s submission that the requested information was “essential” for it to “better gauge” the instructions transmitted to the experts as well as the documents and information provided to them, it still emphasized that Duterte’s legal team has all the necessary information on the registry’s interactions with the experts and instructions on the basis of which they prepared their reports.
“These are contained in the registry’s transmission as well as the annexed panel’s reports. In particular, the chamber notes that, in the panel’s reports, the experts consistently refer to the chamber’s instructions and relevant materials that have guided them in the preparation of their reports,” the PTC 1 ruling read.
“Further recalling that the registry is a neutral organ of the court, whose main role in the present case was to liaise with the experts to transmit the chamber’s instructions, the chamber considers that, without further substantiation from the defense, the disclosure of ‘all communications between the registry and the three experts is not warranted,” it further stated.
The chamber recalled that in an earlier decision it issued on Sept. 24, it gave instructions on what documents should be provided by the registry to the panel, to which the defense has full access.
“Absent any indication that the registry did not comply with these instructions, the chamber considers that the defense is already fully aware of the materials transmitted to the panel,” the PTC 1 said.
For these reasons, there is nothing that would warrant granting Duterte’s request based on articles 57(3)(b), 64(2) or 64(6)(f) of the Rome Statute, it added.
Fit for trial
The chamber appointed on Sept. 24 a team of specialists to examine Duterte to determine if he was capable of exercising his rights and whether the ICC would have to make adjustments based on his condition.
This was after his lawyers sought an “indefinite adjournment” of all pretrial proceedings, citing his “cognitive impairment in multiple domains.” This prompted the PTC I to defer the four-day confirmation of charges hearings which were supposed to start on Sept. 23.
But based on a court document released on Dec. 18, the three doctors tasked to examine, interview and assess the former president said that while “frail and elderly, Mr. Duterte nevertheless possesses the necessary capacities to meaningfully exercise his procedural and fair trial rights.”
Each of the panel member independently concluded that Duterte can understand his charges, evidence and the purpose of pre-trial proceedings, as well as instruct his counsel to prepare his defense.
“These findings are clear and unanimous, and should be relied upon the Chamber as authoritative, to determine that Mr. Duterte is fit to stand trial,” the court document said.
Duterte is facing crimes of humanity charges before the ICC over the thousands of drug-related killings that happened during his terms as Davao City mayor and as President.
