Rodrigo Roa Duterte
The Hague: Former Philippine President Rodrigo Roa Duterte will remain in the International Criminal Court’s detention centre after the Appeals Chamber, in a unanimous 40-page judgment delivered today, rejected his challenge to continued pre-trial custody and fully confirmed the Pre-Trial Chamber’s refusal to grant him interim release.
The five-judge Appeals Chamber, presided over by Judge Luz del Carmen Ibáñez Carranza and composed of Judges Tomoko Akane, Solomy Balungi Bossa, Gocha Lordkipanidze and Erdenebalsuren Damdin, found no legal, factual or procedural error in the Pre-Trial Chamber’s decision of 26 September 2025. That earlier ruling had concluded that detention remained necessary under Article 58(1)(b) of the Rome Statute to prevent flight risk, interference with witnesses or evidence, and the possibility of further crimes, and that neither the conditions proposed by the defence nor the diplomatic assurances offered by a third country willing to host Duterte were sufficient to eliminate those dangers. The Pre-Trial Chamber had also held that medical evidence concerning the 80-year-old suspect’s health and age did not override the need for continued detention.
In its appeal, filed on October 14, 2025, the defence had argued three grounds: first, that the Pre-Trial Chamber had wrongly assessed the risks posed by release; second, that it had improperly dismissed guarantees from the state prepared to accept Duterte under strict supervision; and third, that humanitarian considerations, including his medical condition, had been ignored. After reviewing the entire record de novo on questions of law and applying a standard of reasonableness with appropriate deference on factual findings, the Appeals Chamber dismissed each ground. It held that the Pre-Trial Chamber’s conclusions were the product of a thorough and reasoned evaluation of the evidence, that the proposed release conditions lacked the necessary enforceability to neutralise the identified risks, and that humanitarian factors had been correctly weighed within the framework of Article 58 rather than treated as an automatic override.
The judgment (ICC-01/21-01/25-326-Red) also settled two minor procedural issues. Noting only insignificant differences between the original notice of appeal and the later appeal brief, and observing that both the Prosecutor and victim representatives had fully responded to the refined arguments, the Chamber saw no prejudice and examined the appeal as presented. It further directed the defence to file a public redacted version of its notice of appeal by 16:00 on 3 December 2025 and ordered the Registry to reclassify two earlier confidential orders as public, given that redacted versions of almost all underlying filings are now available.
Duterte, who waived his presence at today’s hearing, has been in ICC custody since his surrender by Philippine authorities on 12 March 2025, following a warrant issued the previous week for alleged crimes against humanity of murder and attempted murder committed between November 2011 and March 2019 in the context of the “war on drugs”.
Duterte, born on March 28, 1945, had been the President of the Philippines, Mayor of Davao City, Vice Mayor of Davao City, and allegedly the founder and head of the Davao Death Squad (‘DDS’), at the time of the relevant conduct.
The confirmation of charges hearing, originally scheduled for September 2025, remains postponed pending resolution of questions about his fitness to stand trial.
With the Appeals Chamber’s ruling now final on the question of interim release, proceedings will continue toward the eventual confirmation hearing, while Duterte stays detained at the court’s facility in the Netherlands.
– global bihari bureau
