The Filipino authorities arrested Rodrigo Duterte, the former president of the Philippines, on Tuesday, days after the International Criminal Court secretly issued an arrest warrant accusing him of crimes against humanity.
The case will be a closely scrutinized test of the legal reach of the court, which investigates accusations of genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and the crime of aggression from its base in The Hague.
Here’s what to know about the court and the lead-up to Mr. Duterte’s arrest.
The I.C.C. arrest comes after jurisdiction questions.
The prosecutor’s office at the International Criminal Court said in 2018 that it was opening an investigation into Mr. Duterte, then the president of the Philippines, and accusations of crimes committed during his crackdown on drugs.
Rights groups have said that roughly 30,000 people were killed in his antidrug campaign, many of them gunned down by police officers, hit men or vigilantes. Some victims were minors, and many were not involved in the drug trade, according to activists.
The I.C.C. draws its jurisdiction from the Rome Statute, a treaty currently signed by 125 countries. Soon after the inquiry was announced, Mr. Duterte said the Philippines would withdraw from the treaty, and the country officially left the court in March 2019.
Mr. Duterte’s lawyer has said the arrest is illegal and without jurisdiction because the country is no longer a court member. A panel of I.C.C. judges, however, wrote in the warrant, dated March 7, that the court had jurisdiction because the accusations dated from when the Philippines was still a signatory of the treaty.
The Philippines is still a member of Interpol, the international police organization, which can seek to arrest Mr. Duterte on behalf of the I.C.C. A representative of Interpol was present when Mr. Duterte was arrested.
But questions of jurisdiction make the case legally complex, said Romel Bagares, a professor of international law based in Manila. In 2019, Mr. Bagares represented a coalition of rights activists in the Supreme Court as they opposed the country’s withdrawal from the I.C.C.
Under Filipino law, a court will need to determine whether the former president can be extradited, Mr. Bagares said. But only Interpol members who are also part of the Rome Statute are obliged to extradite people wanted by Interpol. Some foreign nationals who were wanted abroad were quickly extradited in the past, he said. But this case was more controversial, he said.
“Legally, you cannot send out someone sought in a criminal procedure abroad without an extradition treaty,” Mr. Bagares said.
A political schism preceded Duterte’s arrest.
Mr. Duterte had long been seen as essentially immune to prosecution, and the country’s current president, Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr., had previously pledged to shield Mr. Duterte from international inquiry. An alliance between the two helped Mr. Marcos win election in 2022 with Mr. Duterte’s daughter, Sara Duterte, as his vice president.
But that alliance has since ruptured. Lawmakers impeached Ms. Duterte last month over accusations of corruption and threatening the president. Ms. Duterte has denied the accusations and called the impeachment an attack on her political ambitions.
Now, the arrest of Mr. Duterte is likely to add to the turmoil. The former president still has a substantial following, and many of his supporters have been in uproar since his arrest.
The I.C.C. had suspended its inquiry after the Philippines said its own judicial system would investigate any allegations. But it resumed its investigation in 2023 after the court found the country’s investigation insufficient. Despite previously rebuffing the court in this case, Mr. Marcos has since let officials from the I.C.C. into the Philippines to conduct inquiries.
“The government will be treading here on a minefield, politically,” Mr. Bagares said. Though he had expected Mr. Duterte to be arrested eventually, he said, the speed of it surprised him.
Mr. Duterte was being held at the Villamor Air Base in Manila on Tuesday, and his lawyers were scrambling to file a petition in court for his release.
“It’s not as if he’s traveled to somewhere else and they’ve grabbed him there,” said Sarah Williams, an international criminal law professor at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. She added that Mr. Duterte’s own country had arrested him when it could have argued it had no obligation to do so.
“It does suggest there’s quite serious domestic politics at play,” she said.
It could be a long time before a trial happens.
For families whose loved ones were killed during Mr. Duterte’s crackdown, his arrest was a step toward accountability.
If he is extradited to The Hague, Mr. Duterte will make an initial appearance before the I.C.C. judges. He will then face a hearing confirming the charges, during which prosecutors will give more detailed evidence and his defense lawyers will be able to respond. His defense team could also challenge questions of jurisdiction, both in the I.C.C. and in Filipino courts, and he could apply for a provisional release while proceedings continue, Professor Williams said.
A conviction could come with a sentence of up to 30 years.
It could be anywhere from two months to two years, if not longer, before Mr. Duterte faces a formal trial in The Hague, Professor Williams said. And his legal team has argued that the killings he has been accused of were in self-defense, she said.
“It’s going to be a long road from Manila to The Hague,” Mr. Bagares said.
