Former Philippines leader, Rodrigo Duterte, will remain in The Hague after losing an appeal in the International Criminal Court (ICC) against his detention for “crimes against humanity”.
Duterte faces the charges for his deadly “war on drugs” during his term as President of the country.
According to prosecutors, Duterte allegedly ordered his forces to “clean up the country” of drug cartel gangs in order to control rampant crime.
On Friday, the ICC ruled that the former Philippine president will remain in custody after judges rejected a request for his provisional release despite human rights activists and international observers being split on the decision of Duterte’s conviction of the crimes.
“Defence counsel’s arguments failed to point out errors in an October lower court decision that the ex-leader remain in detention,” President judge Luz del Carmen Ibanez said.
Also Read: ICC begins legal case against ex-Philippines Prez Duterte
On one side, activists believe Duterte should be imprisoned for the crimes he allegedly committed, and on the other, observers opine he had no choice but to free his country from organised crime and bring it back on track.
According to estimates, Duterte’s infamous war against drugs killed more than 7000 people, the majority of whom are believed to have been linked to the organised crime syndicates.
While the former leader has denied authorising extrajudicial killings during his term as president between 2016 and 2022, he openly threatened drug suspects with death during his regime and encouraged police to open fire if a suspect resisted arrest.
The instructions led to killings of thousands of people, mostly drug suspects, by the police, according to Amnesty International.
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