The International Criminal Court (ICC) has rejected the plea of former president Rodrigo Duterte’s defense team to tighten the rules on the identity verification of participating drug‑war victims in his trial for crimes against humanity by limiting acceptable identification documents to either a passport or a National ID. “This information, together with the procedure for admission of victims to participate in the proceedings adopted above, already ensures the ‘reliability of the identity verification process and significantly reduces the risk of fraud’,” the decision signed by the three judges of PTC I read. A previous court record showed that the Registry allowed the submission of a wide range of IDs for victim applicants, citing the backlog in National ID distribution in the Philippines. Aside from the strict ID requirement, Kaufman also asked that drug‑war victims be represented solely by the Office of Public Counsel for Victims, contrary to the Registry’s proposal allowing the victims’ original lawyers to make submissions until common legal counsel is finalized. “While mindful of the need to protect the interests of victim applicants even before the appointment of (common) legal representatives, the Chamber finds it premature to allow ‘lawyers who were appointed by applicants, in victim application forms for participation or through powers of attorney, to make submissions before the Chamber until common legal representation in the Case has been decided',” the same ruling read. The Chamber reminded that evidence disclosed should be “of true relevance to the case and capable of supporting a particular factual allegation underlying the requisite legal elements.” Prosecutor Karim Khan previously informed PTC I that the evidence to be presented includes at least two witnesses, 16 hours of audio and video files, and nearly 9,000 pages of written materials. Read Full Story
