Former President Rodrigo Duterte —Composite picture from Inquirer information/ICC
MANILA, Philippines — The protection group of former President Rodrigo Duterte has objected to among the gadgets within the proposed mechanism for drug battle victims searching for to take part in his trial earlier than the Worldwide Felony Courtroom (ICC) in The Hague.
Led by protection counsel Nicholas Kaufman, the Duterte camp needs the Pre-Trial Chamber (PTC) 1 to “restrict the vary” of allowed paperwork to be submitted by victims as proof of their identification to both solely the nationwide ID or an up-to-date Philippine passport, to “streamline proceedings” and undertake a “extra stringent method.”
READ: New lawyer joins Rodrigo Duterte’s ICC protection group
In case each IDs will not be obtainable, the courtroom ought to settle for “in a staggered trend” the legitimate IDs recognized by state insurer Social Safety System (SSS), the protection counsel added.
“Limiting the vary of identification paperwork enhances the reliability of the identification verification course of and considerably reduces the danger of fraud,” Kaufman mentioned in an April 7 submitting of “observations” to the ICC Registry’s urged procedures for victims.
He argued that using different and insufficiently verified identification paperwork “may result in misidentification, double-counting and the inclusion of false victims.”
These, he famous, may set off “pointless and time-consuming litigation.”
Unrealistic demand
The observations of the protection have been in response to the April 2 discover by the ICC’s Registry, which supplies judicial and administrative help to the courtroom, on its urged course of and modes for admission, sort of identification paperwork and authorized illustration to ensure that the victims to have interaction with the tribunal.
Citing a backlog within the distribution of nationwide IDs within the Philippines, the Registry advisable a variety of Philippine government-issued IDs and paperwork, together with the senior citizen card, individuals with incapacity card, Nationwide Bureau of Investigation clearance and voter’s certification with dry seal.
However the protection dismissed the backlog situation as a “imprecise assertion” for the expanded checklist of proposed IDs.
Kristina Conti of Rise Up for Life and Rights, one of many attorneys aiding victims within the ICC proceedings, mentioned the protection’s observations have been “out of contact and harsh” and “clearly meant to exclude nearly all of the victims of Duterte’s battle on medication.”
“Their insistence on using nationwide IDs is unrealistic, with the obtention and issuance of the playing cards plagued with constant problems with delay. Their suggestion to supply passports is antipoor, as solely the socially cell have the luxurious to avail [themselves] of cross-country journey,” Conti mentioned in an announcement to the Inquirer.
Burden on protection
Other than the kind of IDs, the protection additionally disagreed with the Registry’s proposal that the longtime attorneys of victims be allowed to function short-term authorized representatives “to safeguard their proper to take part” till the courtroom designates their precise counsel.
This suggestion was backed by the ICC’s Workplace of Public Counsel for Victims (OPCV), which confused the necessity to defend the curiosity of the victims whereas awaiting the appointment of their widespread authorized counsel to keep away from “any gaps of their authorized illustration.”
However the protection insisted that the pretrial courtroom acknowledge solely the OPCV as the only real authorized consultant of the victims to keep away from “slowing down the proceedings” by quite a few submissions of their particular person attorneys.
The OPCV, which supplies authorized help, analysis and courtroom illustration to victims, works independently from the ICC.
“Allowing submissions by particular person attorneys for some, however not all, candidates whereas concurrently appointing the OPCV for others will lead to twice the variety of submissions earlier than this Chamber,” Kaufman claimed. “It will likely be unwieldy [and] unnecessarily encumber the protection… This can influence on Mr. Duterte’s proper to a speedy judicial course of.”
New protection group member
This developed because the PTC additionally introduced that seasoned worldwide protection lawyer Dov Jacobs has joined the authorized group of Duterte as an affiliate counsel.
The 45-year-old French lawyer has no less than 15 years of expertise in worldwide legislation and worldwide felony legislation each as a practitioner and as an instructional, data on his private web site confirmed.
Jacobs was a part of the protection group of former Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo who was acquitted in 2019 of prices of homicide, rape and different crimes towards humanity within the ICC.
He’s additionally a protection counsel for Mahamat Mentioned, a former high-ranking militant chief within the Central African Republic at the moment on trial on the ICC for battle crimes and crimes towards humanity.
In Malacañang, Presidential Communications Workplace Undersecretary and Palace press officer Claire Castro mentioned on Tuesday that Kaufman might need extra issues to fret about apart from what he known as “political manipulation” of arguments as the one potential hurdle within the former president’s authorized woes.
In a press briefing, Castro identified that Kaufman’s consumer “admitted his acts of killings.”
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Duterte has additionally repeatedly taken full authorized and ethical duty for the bloody battle on unlawful medication that killed greater than 6,000 largely poor drug suspects in alleged shootouts and vigilante-style killings. —with a report from Julie M. Aurelio