A panel of medical experts unanimously found former President Rodrigo R. Duterte fit to participate in the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) pre-trial proceedings, including the confirmation of charges hearing.
The panel, composed of independent and qualified experts appointed by ICC Pre-Trial Chamber I, was tasked to assess Duterte’s fitness after his camp claimed he was unfit to stand trial due to alleged cognitive impairment.
According to a court document released on December 18, three physicians separately interviewed, examined, and assessed the former president from October 8 to November 18.
“Upon completion of their assessments, panel members individually reached the same overall conclusion that, while frail and elderly, Mr. Duterte nevertheless possesses the necessary capacities to meaningfully exercise his procedural and fair trial rights,” the document stated.
Each panel member independently concluded that Duterte is capable of understanding the charges against him, the evidence, and the purpose of the pre-trial proceedings, as well as of instructing his legal counsel in preparing his defense.
“These findings are clear and unanimous, and should be relied upon by the Chamber as authoritative to determine that Mr. Duterte is fit to stand trial,” the document added.
Duterte’s camp, however, asked the Pre-Trial Chamber to seek further clarification before issuing a ruling, citing what it described as inconsistencies in how the experts reached their conclusions.
Duterte’s counsel, Nicholas Kaufman, said that while the experts attested to the former president’s basic ability to engage in criminal proceedings, it was unclear whether they fully appreciated the complexity of ICC confirmation hearings.
“These proceedings require a suspect, through his defense, to be familiar with thousands of items of evidence from an investigation spanning more than four years,” Kaufman said.
“For this reason, the Defense seeks an evidentiary hearing to clarify the experts’ conclusions, the basis for those conclusions, the methodology used during the interviews, and how instructions were communicated,” he added.
