Former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte arrested over crimes against humanity following drugs crackdown
11 March 2025, 05:41
Former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte has been detained by police in Manila after an international warrant was issued for his arrest.
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The ex- president was arrested at Manila's international airport on Tuesday in relation to a crime against humanity, after the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued a warrant for his arrest, the Philippine government said.
Mr Duterte was taken into police custody after landing in the country from Hong Kong, President Ferdinand Marcos' office said in a statement.
The ICC has been investigating the massive killings that happened under the former president's deadly crackdown against illegal drugs from November 1 2011 when Duterte was still the mayor of the southern city of Davao.
The anti-drug crackdown extended until March 16 2019, with the ICC investigating events as possible crimes against humanity.
The 79-year-old had earlier said he was prepared to go to prison in response to his arrest.
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It comes as the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines labelled his arrest a "historic moment".
"The arc of the moral universe is long, but today, it has bent towards justice. Duterte's arrest is the beginning of accountability for the mass killings that defined his brutal rule," said ICHRP Chairman Peter Murphy.
Duterte withdrew the Philippines in 2019 from the Rome Statute - a move which many human rights activists branded an attempt at escaping accountability over the killings.
The Duterte administration moved to suspend the global court's investigation in late 2021 by arguing that Philippine authorities were already looking into the same allegations, arguing the ICC did not have jurisdiction.
Appeals judges at the ICC ruled in July 2023 that the investigation could resume and rejected the Duterte administration's objections.
Based in The Hague, the ICC can step in when countries are unwilling or unable to prosecute suspects in the most heinous international crimes, including genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.
President Marcos, who succeeded Mr Duterte in 2022 and became entangled in a bitter political dispute with the former president, has decided not to rejoin the global court.
But the Marcos administration has said it would co-operate if the ICC asks international police to take Duterte into custody through a so-called Red Notice, a request for law enforcement agencies worldwide to locate and temporarily arrest a crime suspect.
