Defence requests to refile charges against Duterte

Photo (courtesy ICC-CPI) : Trial Chamber III of the International Criminal Court (ICC) during the second status conference in the case of former Philippine president Duterte on June 23, 2026. Trial Chamber III is composed of Presiding Judge Joanna Korner, Judge Keebong Paek and Judge Nicolas Guillou.

THE HAGUE, The Netherlands — As the full trial nears for the crimes against humanity cases against former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte at the International Criminal Court (ICC), his defence team has filed a motion for the trial judges to order the prosecution to refile the charges against their client.

In an 11-page motion dated August 31, 2026, Duterte’s defence team led by British barrister Peter Haynes, argued that the charges against Duterte are framed in an unprecedented and unlawful way. Haynes reasoned that instead of specific counts supported by defined acts, the prosecution uses broad thematic headings illustrated by non‑exhaustive incidents. This, according to the defence, makes the charges vague, limitless, and impossible to defend against, especially given massive disclosure and the prosecution’s intention to add more incidents.

What constitute specific crimes

The defence assailed the vague use of the prosecution of the “Counts”, claiming the counts are equivalent to specific crimes in traditional ICC practice. Each count, it claims, is supported by defined facts, victims, dates, locations.

However, Haynes argued that in the documents containing charges (DCC) submitted by the prosecution, Count 1 covers years of killings in Davao City, Count 2 covers killings of “high‑value targets” across the Philippines and Count 3 covers murder and attempted murder across the entire country over two years. The defence said these are descriptive headings, not legally chargeable counts.

The defence added this violates Duterte’s right to be informed of the charges or Article 67 (1a) of the Rome Statute because, 1) he does not know the scope of each count, 2) he does not know what must be proven beyond reasonable doubt, and 3) he cannot make strategic decisions in detail and undermines trial fairness and manageability. The defense asked the Trial Chamber III to strike the DCC and require the prosecution to re‑file proper, specific counts with an exhaustive list of alleged acts.

List of witnesses

Meanwhile, the prosecution on Aug. 31 submitted a list of witnesses and evidence to the Trial Chamber I. However, the two lists remained confidential “as both include sensitive witness information,” according to the filing signed by Deputy Prosecutor Mame Mandiaye Niang.

On August 5, the prosecution also disclosed 6,909 items of evidence to the defence against Duterte, 2,279 of which are classified as incriminating.

The full trial for the cases against Duterte at the ICC is set from November 30, 2026. The Trial Chamber III convened the opening status conference on May 27, 2026. During the second status conference on June 23, 2026, Trial Chamber III Presiding Judge Joanna Korner emphasized that she expects ex-president Duterte to be present at the September 16 hearing which she considers “important,” since all reports are expected to be in.