Rody’s lead counsel vows ‘strongest defense’ in ICC case

Vice President Sara Duterte said the defense team of her father will now be all foreign lawyers accredited by the International Criminal Court and who are expected to give their full attention to her father’s crimes against humanity of murder case.

She said the team will no longer include former executive secretary Salvador Medialdea, who represented ex-President Rodrigo Duterte in his first appearance before the ICC pre-trial chamber last week, and former presidential spokesman Harry Roque, who announced his plan to seek asylum in The Netherlands.

Lead counsel and ICC-accredited lawyer Nicholas Kaufman said the defense team would be assembled within the week and that all necessary applications would be filed “in due course.”

“He (Duterte) was completely denied all his rights in the Philippines. That would obviously be a major argument in the course of his defense,” Kaufman said in his first interview with the media at The Hague.

“I’m very confident of the strongest defense possible and I’m very confident that he will be acquitted indeed. Even at the earliest stage possible,” added the British-Israeli lawyer.

Before Duterte, Kaufman previously defended the likes of Maxime Jeoffroy Eli Mokom Gawaka, the alleged former National Coordinator of Operations of the Anti-Balaka who was suspected of war crimes and crimes against humanity allegedly in various locations in the Central African Republic; Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo, President and Commander-in-chief of the Movement for the Liberation of Congo; and Aisha Gaddafi, daughter of the late Libyan leader Muammar who also faced the ICC.

The Vice President said aside from Kaufman, another ICC-accredited lawyer is about to arrive at The Hague.

“I interviewed the person to join the team. Once the team for the ICC is organized, Atty. Medialdea will withdraw because the slots for lawyers are limited, and we want all the lawyers on board who have ICC experience,” she said.

The Vice President explained that Roque’s exclusion was to avoid complications, as his legal basis for staying in the Netherlands remains uncertain.

The priority, she said, was to have someone who can fully focus on the ICC case rather than on an asylum application.

Malacañang, for its part, renewed its call for Roque to return to the Philippines, especially now that he will no longer be part of the legal team of Duterte.

“He said he will not go home because he will represent his president. (But) maybe it would be better for him to first represent himself and defend himself before defending someone else,” Presidential Communications Office Undersecretary Claire Castro said

Roque earlier claimed he was a victim of political persecution, accusing the House Quad Committee of investigating his alleged involvement in illegal POGOs with a “political motivation.”

Aside from the QuadComm arrest order, Roque is also facing a human trafficking complaint before the Department of Justice for his alleged involvement in Lucky South 99 Corporation, a POGO hub raided in Porac, Pampanga.

The Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission and the Philippine National Police-Criminal Investigation and Detection Group filed the complaint in October 2024.

Editor’s Note: This is an updated article. Originally posted with the headline “Roque, Medialdea ‘out’ of Duterte’s defense team—VP Sara.”