Kaufman sorry for drug war victims, but insists client is blameless
THE HAGUE, THE NETHERLANDS—Nicholas Kaufman, the lead counsel for former President Duterte, said he felt sorry for the victims of the drug war and that he did not want to downplay the grief and pain caused by the killings.
In an interview with reporters after he presented the merits of the defense in the case against Duterte on Thursday, Kaufman reiterated his remarks before the Pre-Trial Chamber (PTC) I that he recognized the plight of the victims and their loved ones, particularly one woman in the gallery who was crying as she watched the hearing on the confirmation of charges against Duterte this week.
The experience of the victims and their relatives in the crimes against humanity case against Duterte serves as a basis for the charges against the former president.
“Because in every case in the ICC, the victims are always [at the] center because this court is set up to counter impunity,” he said. “But that has nothing to do with whether or not someone who’s brought before this court is criminally responsible.”
The British-Israeli lawyer said it was only natural for him to feel the human side of the case, but this would not affect his position that the former president could not be held responsible as an indirect coperpetrator in the drug war killings.
“Of course I felt for the old lady in the gallery who was crying because I’m a human being,” he said. “I don’t make light of grief. However, having said that, I have a job to do, and my job is to defend someone who I believe has been wrongly charged.”
Kaufman addressed the victims at the start of his presentation during Thursday’s session, saying that his position doesn’t “disrespect the soul of any deceased person, nor does it make light of the loss of life.”
“Any criticism made by us today will not be leveled at the loved ones of those such as the tearful relative who I saw in the gallery here on Tuesday,” he told the pretrial chamber.
Reduced to stats
Llore Pasco, the lady he might have been referring to, felt belittled by how Kaufman merely reduced the lives of their loved ones to statistics. She lost her two sons to the drug war.
“It was as if [he] did not give importance to our suffering,” Pasco said in reaction to Kaufman’s statements.
She found “no substance” in Kaufman’s arguments in defense of Duterte and dismissed them as “pure lies.”
Kaufman told the PTC I judges that the killings were “minimal” and done at “random” to counter the prosecution’s argument that there was a “common plan” to kill drug suspects on Duterte’s orders.
He said that the prosecution did not have substantial evidence that the ex-chief executive provided “practical assistance, encouragement or moral support” to the crimes committed during his administration’s bloody antinarcotics campaign.
Kaufman argued that the prosecution had failed to elaborate on Duterte’s liability, whether through direct order, solicitation or aiding and abetting the killings committed in the drug war.
He noted that the prosecution also failed to elaborate on what it really meant by “soliciting” in relation to Duterte’s public statements related to his drug war.
“If it means the ambiguous public speeches, then it is difficult to reconcile the frequent exhortations to self-defense with soliciting,” Kaufman said.
‘Generalized statements’
He pointed out that “generalized statements months before specific incidents do not establish causation or instruction.”
“In my submission, no real attempt was made [by the prosecution] to perform this duty of examining exonerating circumstances, or even to establish the existence of other actors who might be responsible for the high instance of deaths in the context of the war on drugs,” he added.
Kaufman also targeted the prosecution’s star witnesses, whom he noted were “inherently unreliable” due to their status as “self-confessed vicious murderers.”
He noted that their statements were taken by the prosecution’s investigators with the assurance of “limited use,” which meant that any self-incriminating disclosures would not be used against them in the ICC proceedings.
Kaufman said that the limited use agreement meant that, “for all intents and purposes,” these witnesses would be granted immunity from prosecution.
“I do not think that I would be alone either in believing that there is something morally repugnant or even questionable from a public policy standpoint to shield not only one, but a number of murderers from prosecution at the ICC just in an attempt to nail Rodrigo Duterte,” Kaufman said.
Neri reacts to Sal
Human rights lawyer Neri Colmenares, who observed the court proceedings, said “nothing was shattered,” belittling former Duterte spokesperson Salvador Panelo’s statement that he was satisfied with Kaufman’s arguments on Thursday.
“They (defense) said there’s no common plan. I don’t see any procedural requirement that they had to have a meeting for a common plan … That doesn’t shatter [evidence],” he said.
Colmenares said it would be unlikely for the defense to convince the court that the police merely woke up in a bad mood and went on a random killing spree.
“No. It was an order, there was a pattern, there was public vilification of targets and there was an execution of the targets in broad daylight with many witnesses in public plazas and markets as if the perpetrators were never afraid,” he said.
Colmenares wondered why Kaufman had to bring up the prosecution of the “self-confessed murderers” when the ICC prosecutors usually go after only those who are deemed the “most responsible,” or the ones who ordered killings, not those who carried out the order.
118,000 arrests
ICC-accredited lawyer Kristina Conti said that the defense also placed on the record that arrests during the so-called war on drugs reached about 118,000.
“So to the point of view of the legal representatives of victims, who pointed the issue out on Monday, that the crimes against humanity encompass so many acts, including detention and arrest,” Conti told reporters.
The confirmation of charges hearing against Duterte will determine whether there is sufficient evidence to establish substantial grounds to bring the case of crimes against humanity of murder and attempted murder against Duterte to a full trial. —WITH A REPORT FROM ZACARIAN SARAO
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