Former Philippines Rodrigo Duterte President to Appear in Court Over Drug Killings

(The Post News)- Former President of the Philippines Rodrigo Duterte, 79, was taken into custody on Tuesday after the government was issued a warrant of arrest by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for alleged crimes against humanity.

Duarte was arrested at the Manila main airport while he was returning from his Hong Kong trip. According to the statement received by the Interpol’s Manila Office, upon his (Duterte’s) arrival, the Prosecutor General filed an ICC notification for an arrest warrant against the former President for crimes against humanity.

Reports have revealed that during his tenure, Duterte conducted a “brutal anti-drugs” crackdown that killed more than 6,000 people, according to the local police data, though independent monitors believe that numbers of extrajudicial killings could be much higher.

Moreover, according to reports, Duterte offered no apologies for his brutal anti-drug crackdown. However, he, in a video posted by his daughter Veronica Duterte online, questioned the validity of the warrant, saying, “What is the law and what is the crime that I committed?”