Kaufman ends ICC pre-trial with Duterte’s words from detention. Will judges strike them out?

Supporters and critics alike of former president Rodrigo Duterte had hoped to see him finally make a public appearance after a year behind the walls of the International Criminal Court (ICC), only for him to waive his right to attend his confirmation of charges hearing.

And so when his lead defense counsel, Nicholas Kaufman, concluded his submissions with a detailed, narrative account of a prison visit, Kaufman had the undivided attention of the public gallery.

Kaufman on Friday, February 27, quoted Duterte, telling the open session the directions his client had given him: “Nick, I have done my duty and I have left my legacy. Go to court and do your job, but I can no longer help you. I no longer remember much at all, and I can’t comment on people who I do not know, and on statistics that mean nothing to me.”

“I was a faithful servant of the people, and that is how I wish to be remembered. I have now accepted my fate, and I realize that I could die in prison,” Kaufman quoted Duterte as saying.

“I’ve never murdered anyone,” Duterte also supposedly said. 

But this did not sit well with the prosecution. Just as pre-trial chamber I presiding judge Iulia Motoc was closing the session, trial lawyer Julian Nicholls interrupted her, saying that none of it was responsive to arguments.

Nicholls also claimed that Kaufman was not allowed to testify or make a speech for his client, pointing to court rules. 

“If he wanted to come here – he didn’t want to come here, he could have come here and talked about whatever he wanted to, but he chose not to. Mr. Kaufman’s conveying this – he’s been complaining about hearsay all day, it’s not reliable,” said Nicholls, asking the judges to give the account “zero weight” in their deliberations.

Kaufman responded to say that it was not testimony, but mere “explanation” for not attending the hearing. Motoc acknowledged both without immediately making a decision on whether to strike the quotes from the record.

During the course of Duterte’s confirmation of charges hearing over alleged crimes against humanity, Kaufman repeatedly said that the Davao Death Squad was fictitious. He said that submitted evidence of its existence are based on anecdotes and hearsay, refuting the prosecution’s arguments that it was a coordinated network of Duterte’s killing policy in Davao City that was later replicated on a national level.

Though Kaufman claims in both his own and his client’s words that Duterte has never killed anyone, the former president himself, in a number of instances, has admitted such publicly.

Letters, flowers, and photos

Apart from quoting from the former president from his prison cell, Kaufman gave descriptions of letters and flowers sent to where Duterte has stayed for almost a year.

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Kaufman visited Duterte on Wednesday, February 25, the break in the four-day confirmation of charges hearing. He said that he tried to engage Duterte about the evidence and his own statements “hoping that it might excite him,” but Duterte supposedly refused.

Instead the defense team tried to humor him, reminding him that it was almost his 81st birthday, and that there was a constant flow of Filipinos gathering in “Duterte Street,” the informal name for the fenced off area outside the detention center.

He described a “mountain” of cards and greetings and a “forest” of flowers sent to him on his 80th birthday. Kaufman put on the record that flowers that were sent to the court “rotted in the corridors” because staff “avoided” them after learning where they came from.

Kaufman said that his team showed him photos of his children – from his youngest Kitty, who writes “so often that the letters are piling up in his room,” to his older children who comprise the family’s political dynasty in Davao. 

And in what some might see as campaign speech, Kaufman said: “We showed him pictures of Inday Sara, greeting the enthusiastic crowds of people in the Philippines, and then finally his face beamed with pride.” 

Vice President Sara Duterte recently announced her bid for the 2028 presidency.

“He murdered no one,” Kaufman said, reiterating his strongest defense – that there is “absolutely nothing” that directly links Duterte to the deaths in the drug war.

Victims of the drug war and their supporters are nonetheless confident in the evidence presented by the prosecution, using his own words indicating his pride in his violent style of governance.  

The ICC pre-trial chamber is expected to render its decision on whether to confirm the charges within 60 days. – Rappler.com