Kaufman calls ICC ruling on Duterte’s detention ‘erroneous’

Former president Rodrigo Duterte’s legal counsel, Nicholas Kaufman, described the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) decision to junk their appeal for interim release as erroneous.

“When I describe a decision as being erroneous, I’m using legalese,” the British-Israeli barrister said in a video posted on Facebook by the page Alvin in Tourism.

“It’s a term that we have to use if we’re going to make an appeal because appeals are decided on the basis of errors of law and errors of fact in the decision on interim release,” he further explained.

On 10 October, the ICC released a 23-page court document containing the decision made by the court’s Pre-Trial Chamber I, stating that Duterte “continues to pose a flight risk” and that his detainment is essential to ensure his presence during pre-trial proceedings and a possible trial.

However, Kaufman said the legal team has filed a notice of appeal against the ruling.

“We believe that the first instance chamber — the pre-trial chamber — should have taken things under consideration and given better weight to them. We believe that that was an error,” he explained.

Silence, Sara

In the document released by the ICC, the ruling also noted that public statements made by Duterte’s daughter, Vice President Sara Duterte, affected the court’s decision.

“More specifically, the chamber notes that on (July 19), Mr. Duterte’s daughter mentioned in public speeches the idea of breaking Duterte out of the ICC Detention Centre,” the ruling read.

For Kaufman, however, such “excessive comments” should not be encouraged.

“The judges of the International Criminal Court have a job to perform, just as counsel have a job to perform, and they shouldn’t have every act scrutinized in the media,” he said.