Ex-Philippines President Duterte arrested for crimes against humanity
Make us a preferred source
Make us a preferred source on Google
The news: Former president of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, was arrested as he arrived at Manila’s international Airport by police acting on a warrant from the International Criminal Court (ICC) related to his war on drugs.
The numbers: Human rights groups say that over 12,000 people were killed during Duterte’s six years as President between 2016 to 2022.
The context: Police arrested Duterte on Tuesday after Interpol Manila received an official copy of the arrest warrant issued by the ICC, which accuses the former leader of crimes against humanity. The court defines such crimes as widespread or systematic attacks against civilians, including murder, torture and rape.
The ICC launched a probe into Duterte’s war on drugs in 2021, investigating Duterte’s violent crackdown on illicit narcotics which he began when he was mayor of Davao City in 1998, stretching to his time as President. The crackdown, which saw the deaths of thousands of Filipinos, targeted suspected drug dealers and users and allowed police and state-backed vigilantes to carry out violent raids and thousands of suspected extrajudicial killings.
The communications office of Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr said that the arrest was made on Duterte’s return from a trip to Hong Kong, and that the former leader is “in good health.”
Duterte questioned the basis for the warrant in a video posted online by his daughter Veronica ‘Kitty’ Duterte: “What is the law and what is the crime that I committed?”
