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Former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte has been detained under an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court over a crackdown on drugs that resulted in thousands of deaths in the south-east Asian country.
Duterte, 79, was arrested in Manila on Tuesday immediately on his return from a trip to Hong Kong, the communications office of Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr said in a statement.
Police arrested Duterte after Interpol Manila received the official copy of the arrest warrant issued by the ICC alleging crimes against humanity, Marcos’s office said.
Duterte, who served as president from 2016 to 2022, launched a crackdown on illicit narcotics shortly after taking office. The campaign, which targeted suspected drug dealers and users, led to the deaths of thousands of mostly poor Filipinos and raised global alarm over extrajudicial killings.
According to local media reports, Duterte will first be handed over to an ICC member state and then be taken to the international court’s headquarters in The Hague. The Philippines withdrew from the ICC in 2019.
At least 6,200 Filipinos were killed in the crackdown, according to the Philippine government, but rights groups say the official toll underestimates the number of lives lost.
A 2022 report by UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights put the death toll at 8,663, based on official figures, although it also noted that other groups have put the total at more than triple that number.
In a video posted by his daughter Veronica Duterte on social media on Tuesday, the former president questioned the legality of his arrest.
“What is the law and what is the crime I have committed? Show to me now the legal basis for my being here,” he said. “Apparently I was brought here not of my own volition.”
The ICC began a preliminary investigation in 2018 into allegations of extrajudicial killings during the course of the anti-drug operations.
Duterte withdrew the Philippines from the ICC once the probe began, but under Marcos, who succeeded Duterte as president, Manila indicated it would co-operate with the court.
Sebastian “Baste” Duterte, the former president’s son and mayor of Davao City, wrote on Facebook: “They are insisting that [Duterte] get on a plane to who knows where using an ICC warrant, which does not have jurisdiction in this country.”
The elder Duterte was mayor of Davao City from 2013 to 2016. He was succeeded by his daughter Sara, who serves as Marcos’s vice-president.
The two powerful political families are also engaged in a bitter feud. Last year, Sara Duterte said she had hired an assassin to kill Marcos, though she has since tried to walk back those comments. An impeachment motion has been filed against her over the threat.
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