Pre-Trial Chamber says legal process does not allow parties to request judges to step aside
The premises of the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands. The ICC moved into this building in December 2015.
By Choinowski - Own work, CC Wikimedia Commons.
Page 1 of the four-page ICC Pre-Trial Chamber decision rejecting the request to excuse two judges from the Duterte case.
Source: International Criminal Court, ICC-01/21-01/25-126
The Pre-Trial Chamber I of the International Criminal Court (ICC) has rejected the request by the defense team of former President Rodrigo Duterte to excuse two judges from his case.
In a four-page decision posted on its website on 6 May, the international tribunal denied Duterte’s defense team 1 May request entitled “Defence Invitation for the Excusal of Judge Reine Adélaïde Sophie Alapini-Gansou and Judge María del Socorro Flores Liera from Adjudicating on the Issue of Jurisdiction.”
The filing coincided with the defense's earlier move to challenge the court's jurisdiction over the Philippines — the first formal attempt to halt proceedings against Duterte in relation to alleged crimes against humanity committed during his controversial war on drugs.
According to the legal counsels of Duterte, Alapini-Gansou and Flores Liera should be partially excused due to the “possibility of perceived bias”.
They argued that the two were among the judges that approved the preliminary investigation against Duterte.
Duterte defense team’s request was opposed by the Prosecution team in a filing dated 5 May.
The Pre-Trial Chamber ruled that Duterte’s camp had no legal basis to ask for the judges’ excusal, citing Article 41 of the Rome Statute and Rules 34 and 35 of the ICC’s Rules of Procedure and Evidence.
“[A] Judge's excusal from the exercise of a function may only be sought by the concerned judge directly before the Presidency, as opposed to disqualification for which the Prosecution or the person being investigated or prosecuted may submit a request before the Presidency,” the ICC decision read.
“The possibility for that person to invite or request judges to seek excusal before the Presidency is thus not contemplated in the statutory texts. As stated by the Presidency, 'no preemptive request may be made by the parties that a judge request his or her excusal' and such course of action ‘lacks procedural propriety,’” it added.
It continued: “For these reasons, the chamber hereby dismisses the invitation in limine.”
The decision was signed by Judges Iulia Antoanella Motoc, Reine Adélaïde Sophie Alapini-Gansou, and María del Socorro Flores Liera, and issued from The Hague on 6 May 2025.
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