November 22, 2025 | 10:09am
MANILA, Philippines — Former president Rodrigo Duterte’s appeal for interim release before the International Criminal Court (ICC) will be delivered in open court and streamed live online on Friday, November 28.
The ICC said the judgment will be transmitted via its official website, as well as on Facebook and YouTube at 10:30 a.m. on Friday, giving the public direct access to one of the most closely watched international criminal proceedings in recent years.
This latest appeal comes after Pre-Trial Chamber I rejected previous requests for interim release on Sept. 26, 2025, citing Duterte’s opposition to his arrest, family demands for his return to the Philippines and public comments by Vice President Sara Duterte suggesting she would break him out of ICC detention.
The Duterte camp filed the current appeal on Oct. 14, 2025, arguing that the court did not properly consider “humanitarian considerations.”
The appeal noted Duterte’s age (80 years), infirmity and debilitated state, asserting that detaining him while he enjoys the presumption of innocence is “cruel.”
“Mr. Duterte has neither the desire nor capacity to flee or to return to a life of power or politics. He merely seeks interim release in a country where he can participate in the confirmation proceedings in a setting conducive to his proven weak state of mental and physical health,” the appeal read.
ICC jurisdiction challenged
Duterte’s defense has recently challenged the ICC’s jurisdiction over him, filing a separate 21-page appeal on Nov. 14, 2025.
The lawyers argued that Pre-Trial Chamber I erred in ruling that the Court could assert jurisdiction even after the Philippines withdrew from the Rome Statute, citing Article 127(2) as lex specialis.
The defense identified “three further errors of law and fact” in the ICC’s decision, including the scope of preliminary examinations, the role of the Office of the Prosecutor and the application of the Rome Statute’s object and purpose.
The team argued that allowing the ICC to claim jurisdiction after a state’s withdrawal is unsupported by precedent and “never before argued by the Prosecutor.”
The Philippines became a signatory to the Rome Statute on Nov. 1, 2011. But under the Duterte administration, the country formally withdrew from the treaty effective March 17, 2019, following an ICC preliminary examination into killings linked to his anti-drug campaign.
Despite this, the Pre-Trial Chamber authorized an investigation on Sept. 15, 2021.
Duterte was arrested on March 12, 2025, following a warrant issued by the ICC on March 7.
He is currently detained at the Hague Penitentiary Institution and faces charges of crimes against humanity, including over 49 counts of murder and attempted murder, related to his controversial war on drugs during his tenure as Davao City mayor and president.
Duterte’s confirmation of charges hearing, originally scheduled for Sept. 23, 2025, was postponed after his defense argued that he was unfit to stand trial.
Human rights groups have long criticized his deadly anti-drug campaign, which the police officially reported as causing over 6,000 deaths, while groups estimate as many as 30,000 fatalities.