THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) \u2014 Former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte attended a hearing Wednesday at the International Criminal Court, where he’s facing charges of crimes against humanity, smiling and waving to supporters during his first public appearance in over a year.<\/p>\n
The ex-leader is accused of murder and attempted murder for his alleged involvement in dozens of killings as part of his so-called war on drugs during his time in office. He denies the charges against him.<\/p>\n
Dressed a black suit and a crisp white shirt, the 81-year-old joined a pretrial hearing that focused largely on scheduling concerns ahead of the trial’s official start, expected in November.<\/p>\n
Duterte was arrested in the Philippines in March 2025 and sent to The Hague. He made his initial appearance via video link from the court’s detention center and had not attended another session until Wednesday.<\/p>\n
His legal team had attempted to get the case thrown out on medical grounds, but judges denied a request for him to be released from custody and ultimately ruled earlier this year that he was healthy enough to stand trial.<\/p>\n
The ICC has been looking into mass killings in crackdowns overseen by Duterte, first when he served as mayor of the southern Philippine city of Davao and later as president.<\/p>\n
Estimates of the death toll during Duterte\u2019s presidential term vary, from the more than 6,000 reported by the national police to up to 30,000 claimed by human rights groups.<\/p>\n
According to the prosecutors, police and government hit squads carried out dozens of killings at Duterte\u2019s orders, motivated by the promise of money or to avoid becoming targets themselves.<\/p>\n
In June, the presiding judge in his case told Duterte\u2019s lawyers that she wanted the ex-leader to turn up. \u201cWe would expect Mr. Duterte to be here unless there\u2019s some medical issue,\u201d Judge Joanna Korner said.<\/p>\n
Earlier this week, his counsel requested additional medical evaluations.<\/p>\n
Relatives of those killed in the drug crackdowns held a group watch in Manila, chanting \u201cJustice for all victims of the killings!\u201d<\/p>\n
A small group of protesters also gathered outside the ICC ahead of the hearing to voice their support for the proceedings.<\/p>\n
A month after the court in February 2018 announced a preliminary investigation into the violent drug crackdowns, Duterte said the Philippines would withdraw from the ICC.<\/p>\n
Last year, judges rejected a request from Duterte\u2019s legal team to throw out the case because of the Philippine withdrawal. They said that countries cannot \u201cabuse\u201d their right to withdraw from the court\u2019s foundational Rome Statute \u201cby shielding persons from justice in relation to alleged crimes that are already under consideration.\u201d<\/p>\n
Earlier this year, an attempt by authorities to arrest another man wanted by the ICC in connection with the drug killings dissolved into gunfire in the Philippine Senate in May. No one was hurt. The court had unsealed an arrest warrant for Ronald Marapon dela Rosa, who served as national police chief under Duterte. Dela Rosa went into hiding following the Senate standoff and remains on the run.<\/p>\n
In July, the Philippine Senate, acting as an impeachment court, opened a trial of Duterte\u2019s daughter, Vice President Sara Duterte. If convicted of her charges, which include amassing unexplained wealth and publicly threatening the family of the current president, Ferdinand Marcos Jr., she may be permanently disqualified from holding public office. She denies the charges.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) \u2014 Former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte attended a hearing Wednesday at the International Criminal…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":401418,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[249,251,250],"class_list":["post-401417","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-lauderdale","tag-fort-lauderdale","tag-fort-lauderdale-headlines","tag-fort-lauderdale-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401417","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=401417"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401417\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/401418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=401417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=401417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=401417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}