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Philippines: Duterte government locks out International Criminal Court investigators

2021-09-16T02:29:32.523Z


Thousands of people died in anti-drug missions in the Philippines. The International Criminal Court now wants to investigate crimes against humanity. But the Duterte government is reluctant.


Enlarge image

Rodrigo Duterte (archive image)

Photo: Bullit Marquez / AP

The Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte campaigned in 2016, among other things, with the promise to intensify the fight against drug-related crime.

He has kept these promises - in the opinion of many observers, however, with means that go far beyond the state's permissions.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) agrees and will initiate an official investigation against the Philippines for alleged murders in the state's anti-drugs campaign.

The Hague court gave chief prosecutor Karim Khan the green light for this on Wednesday.

Immediately after this announcement, however, the first reaction came from the Philippines.

Accordingly, the government there will not cooperate.

Even more: According to a spokesman, the country refuses to allow ICC investigators to enter the country.

The prosecution requested judicial approval in June to investigate alleged crimes in the state "War on Drugs" of November 1, 2011 and March 16, 2019.

According to the court, crimes against humanity can be involved.

"Attack against the civilian population"

The judges emphasized that the "war on drugs" could not be viewed as "legitimate prosecution" based on the facts available to date.

The killings are neither legitimate nor do they appear to be "excesses of a legitimate mission."

Rather, the documents available indicated that it was “a broad and systematic attack against the civilian population”.

According to the World Criminal Court indictment, members of the National Police may have killed tens of thousands of people.

It is unclear when the first arrest warrants will be issued and then a trial opened.

Death commands are up to mischief

After announcing the prosecutor's investigations, Duterte announced his country's withdrawal from the court.

It came into force on March 17, 2019.

But according to the Basic Treaty, the criminal court remains responsible for crimes that were committed during the time when the Philippines were a contracting state.

In the anti-drug war, several thousand people are said to have been killed by death squads since Duterte took office at the end of June 2016.

When he was elected, Duterte announced tough crackdown on drug criminals.

He justified this, among other things, with the fact that drugs destroyed human lives.

Duterte threatened drug smugglers with death, and he encouraged criminal investigators to shoot suspects rather than endanger their lives.

jok / dpa

Source: spiegel

All news articles on 2021-09-16

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