Rodrigo Duterte, the former president of the Philippines, was arrested in the country’s capital Manila on Tuesday after the International Criminal Court issued a warrant against him as part of an investigation into accusations of crimes against humanity committed by the former leader as part of his deadly war on drugs in the country.
Former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte was arrested at the Manila Airport after returning from ... [+]
The Philippine government said Duterte was arrested at 9:20 a.m. local time immediately after he arrived at Manila’s main international airport after returning from a trip to Hong Kong.
The government officials said the 79-year-old former president was in good health and Philippine National Police officers wearing body cameras carried out the arrest.
According to a copy of the ICC’s arrest warrant, the three judge panel overseeing the investigation into Duterte’s actions said there were “reasonable grounds” to believe that the killings carried out as part of his regime’s war on drugs “was both widespread and systematic.”
The warrant noted that these thousands of killings took place “over a period of several years.”
According to the New York Times, former president’s attorneys questioned the legality of the arrest, citing Philippines’ withdrawal from the Rome Statute-which among other things establishes the ICC’s jurisdiction—in 2019 during Duterte’s term in office.
This is a developing story.