The International Criminal Court on Monday postponed "until further notice" a hearing on crimes against humanity allegedly committed by former Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte, while judges weigh his fitness to take part.
Duterte was scheduled to appear at the ICC on September 23 to hear the charges over his years-long campaign against drug users and dealers that rights groups say killed thousands.
But the court decided to adjourn the hearing until it could decide on a defence motion that the 80-year-old was "not fit to stand trial".
"Litigation regarding Mr. Duterte's fitness to participate in the pre-trial proceedings is ongoing in connection with the Defence's Adjournment Request," said the court in a statement.
Hence, the court decided that a "limited postponement of the hearing on the confirmation of charges is warranted to allow sufficient time to adjudicate" on the defence request.
The three-judge panel was split on the decision, with one dissenting.
The postponement will be "limited to the time strictly necessary to determine whether Mr. Duterte is fit to follow and participate in the pre-trial proceedings", the ICC said.
Duterte was arrested in Manila on March 11, flown to the Netherlands that same night and has been held at the ICC's detention unit at Scheveningen Prison since.
The ICC investigation
The ICC opened an inquiry in 2021 into mass killings linked to the so-called war on drugs overseen by Duterte when he served as mayor of the southern Philippine city of Davao and later as president.
Estimates of the death toll during Duterte’s presidential term vary, from the more than 6,000 that the national police have reported and up to 30,000 claimed by human rights groups.
ICC judges who looked at prosecution evidence supporting their request for his arrest found “reasonable grounds to believe that Mr. Duterte is individually responsible for the crime against humanity of murder” as an “indirect co-perpetrator for having allegedly overseen the killings when he was mayor of Davao and later president of the Philippines,” according to his warrant.
At his initial hearing, he followed by videolink, appearing dazed and frail, barely speaking.
He is the first Asian former head of state charged by the ICC. It is rare for international courts to find suspects, even increasingly elderly suspects, wholly unfit for trial.
The ICC has never found a suspect unfit for trial despite several other defendants' petitions.
