The four-day confirmation hearing on the crimes against humanity charges against former President Rodrigo Duterte is expected to revisit allegations raised during his war on drugs, launched in fulfillment of a key campaign promise.

Lead counsel Nicholas Kaufman said a key point the defense team will prove is that the evidence presented against Duterte does not amount to a case.

“And I believe that when he made those speeches, he didn’t make them with criminal intent,” Kaufman explained.

The allegations against Duterte are that his fiery speeches against drugs prompted the harsh methods that led to the numerous state-sanctioned killings of drug traffickers and dependents.

During the hearing process, the job of the defense will be to “chip away at the prosecution’s evidence and try to convince the judges that they shouldn’t let this case go to trial, when all the while we know that there is still the issue of jurisdiction pending before the Appeals Chamber.”

Kaufman hinted at the “unique” situation where “we’ve been pushed into a confirmation process when one of the most fundamental issues in this case is still undecided, and that’s the issue of jurisdiction.”

He mentioned a crisis that prompted the international court to give the Duterte case priority.

“The case is really unique because we’re the first to, well, we’re not the first to withdraw from the ICC, but we have such a different situation, right? Well, this is the first, how can I put it, this is the first big country outside Africa,” he said.

The ICC is under huge criticism for going after figures in small African nations but is practically helpless against leaders of big countries who are suspected of committing acts of genocide.

The pressure on the court to deliver results is mounting.

“There will be some people who will say that the reason we’re going so quickly to confirmation is because the courts are empty at the moment, by and large. They’ve got nothing to show, especially when more than, I would say, a month or two ago, there was this big Assembly of State Parties conference when the budget for this year was approved. They’ve been given a lot of money,” Kaufman pointed out.

Empty courtrooms will not impress the ICC’s financiers.

“So they’re hoping for a trial, and that trial will be, as they hope, of President Rodrigo Duterte,” Kaufman said.

“So this is one of the reasons they’re keen to pursue and proceed with this case, to show that the International Criminal Court isn’t in fact the International African Court, which is what some of the detractors in Kenya and elsewhere argued,” Kaufman added.

Also on the ICC agenda would be the former president’s fitness to withstand the rigors of a trial.

Kaufman revealed a controversy in the examination for fitness, where the ICC appointed an independent expert panel but later disqualified two of its members, “one of whom was disqualified from her own medical association and the other was a rabid social media troll.”

Then the reports of a neurologist and a forensic psychiatrist came out, which, Kaufman disclosed, “all contradicted each other.”

Duterte’s defense team then asked for a hearing to cross-examine the medical experts. The ICC denied their plea, which the lawyers questioned.

“I’ve been practicing as a prosecutor and as defense counsel, and I’ve never come across a situation where medical evidence is disputed between the parties and the courts don’t let the parties cross-examine the medical experts. It’s unheard of,” Kaufman said.

Listening to Kaufman, it is apparent that significant external pressure is being exerted on the ICC, much of it tied to its financial lifeline.

At stake is not only Mr. Duterte’s fate, but the future of the intrusive international court.