Philippines' ex-President Duterte put on plane after ICC arrest for drug war killings, likely taken to the Hague

Former Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte boarded a jet on Tuesday, his daughter and local media said, hours after he was arrested at the request of the International Criminal Court over killings in his war on drugs.

Veronica Duterte, the ex-leader’s youngest daughter, said on Instagram he had boarded the plane but the family had not been informed of its destination, accompanying the post with a picture of a small bus on an airfield.

“They took dad from us, put him on a plane and wouldn’t say where to. People, wake up,” she posted.

ABS-CBN News posted a video on X of Duterte boarding a jet in a Manila airfield and the Philippine Star newspaper said on X it had received confirmation from a senior police official that the flight was bound for the Hague, where the ICC is based.

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Police did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for confirmation.

Duterte, the maverick former mayor who led the Philippines from 2016 to 2022, was arrested at a Manila airport on arrival from Hong Kong early on Tuesday, in a major step in the ICC’s investigation into thousands of killings in an anti-drugs crackdown that defined his presidency.

The “war on drugs” was Duterte’s signature campaign platform that swept the mercurial, crime-busting former prosecutor to power and he soon delivered on promises he made during vitriolic speeches to kill thousands of drug pushers and users.

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If transferred to The Hague, he could become Asia’s first former head of state to go on trial at the ICC.

Duterte has long insisted he instructed police to kill only in self-defence and has defended the crackdown, repeatedly telling his supporters he was ready to “rot in jail” if it meant ridding the Philippines of drugs.

His arrest follows years of him rebuking and taunting the ICC since he unilaterally withdrew the Philippines from the court’s founding treaty in 2019 as it started looking into allegations of systematic murders of drug dealers on his watch.

The ICC, a court of last resort, is probing alleged crimes against humanity and says it has jurisdiction to investigate alleged crimes that took place while a country was a member.

Duterte and his family and allies on Tuesday said the arrest was unlawful and the court has no jurisdiction.