Arya News - The prosecution, in a Sept. 29 redacted version of its response to a defence motion on the volume of evidence, urged the Trial Chamber (TC) III not to put a cap of only 10,000 items on its disclosure.
MANILA – The prosecution in the International Criminal Court (ICC) has asserted that its body of evidence against former President Rodrigo Duterte is massive, as the drug war was so “widespread and systematic” that it led to thousands of killings.
The prosecution, in a Sept. 29 redacted version of its response to a defense motion on the volume of evidence, urged the Trial Chamber (TC) III not to put a cap of only 10,000 items on its disclosure.
“[T]he dataset is large because it records the deaths of the thousands of individuals killed by the PNP (Philippine National Police) in anti-illegal drug operations, as well as the deaths of other drug personalities, while Mr. Duterte was President,” the prosecution said in the 16-page filing released only on Tuesday night.
“The prosecution relies on this, in part, to prove the widespread and systematic attack against the civilian population,” it added.
The defense, led by British barrister Peter Haynes, earlier asked the chamber to direct the prosecution to reduce its evidence to no more than 10,000 from the initial disclosed items of 62,130.
It argued that the pieces of evidence were bloated with irrelevant, duplicate and defective material, making it improbable for lawyers to review before the start of the trial on Nov. 30.
Duterte is charged with murder as crime against humanity for his alleged role in masterminding an antinarcotics policy that ruthlessly killed suspected drug users, pushers or traders from the time he was Davao City mayor and later, as president.
For its part, the prosecution told the TC III that the massive volume of evidence is “reasonable considering the scale of the case” as the geographical scope covers the entire Philippines while the time frame spans nearly eight years.
The prosecution has investigated killings related to Duterte’s drug war from Nov. 1, 2011 to March 16, 2019, when the country was still a party to the Rome Statute, the treaty establishing the ICC.
“The prosecution has also disclosed evidence that predates the jurisdictional period as Mr. Duterte formed the death squads he used to murder alleged criminals throughout the charged period in 1988,” it said.
‘Contextual elements’
It added that it should not be asked to trim down its dataset that proves “contextual elements” of the killings, which the defense had denied were crimes against humanity.
A sample evidence item that the defense had mischaracterized as irrelevant was the “murder over a coin toss betting game,” the prosecution said.
It stressed that while the incident appeared to be a killing over a game based on a PNP spot report, a check of other records showed the motive was illegal drugs and the alleged suspect was a drug pusher.
The prosecution also accused the defense of “misleading” claims, particularly on the supposed turnover of thousands of documents beyond the Aug. 31 deadline set by the chamber. It cited the notice sent by the Registry, the ICC’s administrative arm, to parties that the uploading of the material was “taking longer than anticipated.”
It likewise told the TC III that it has offered multiple forms of assistance to the defense “well beyond the scope of its obligations,” but these were rejected.
At the same time, it stressed that it is the duty of the defense to review or “triage” further the evidence it has already submitted and classified as incriminating, exculpatory and material for inspection.
“[The defense] has instead spent its time collating complaints, that when placed in their proper context, are of limited impact,” the prosecution said.