ICC grants request of Duterte camp to suspend adjudication on interim release

Former Philippine president Rodrigo Roa Duterte makes his initial appearance before the Pre-Trial Chamber I of the International Criminal Court on March 14, 2025. Handout/ICC

MANILA -- The International Criminal Court (ICC) Pre-trial Chamber I decided on Wednesday, July 23, to grant the request of the camp of former President Rodrigo Duterte to suspend adjudication on their request for interim release.

This means that the Court will hold off on making a decision whether to grant the former Philippine president temporary freedom, to allow his legal team more time to gather and submit additional information they deem crucial.

All three judges of the Chamber agreed to the suspension, with Judge María del Socorro Flores Liera partly dissenting.

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Duterte's legal defense team filed an urgent interim‑release application on June 12, 2025, citing humanitarian grounds due to his advanced age of 80 years old. This was opposed by both prosecution and the Office of Public Counsel for Victims (OPCV). 

But on July 14, the defense filed another urgent request, this time to suspend adjudication on the interim release, due to certain "obstacles" caused by the delay in obtaining essential information. 

However, not much detail can be extracted from the 6-page submission because it was heavily redacted. The request is made of two parts, according to the ICC Pre-trial Chamber I:

(i) 'suspend its adjudication of the [Interim Release Request] until such time as the Defense has assembled all information necessary' in support (the 'First Issue'); and (ii) 'order or, failing that, strenuously to encourage the performance of' certain procedures (the 'Second Issue').

On July 17, the prosecution strongly opposed the suspension, maintaining that the defense's own premature filing caused the situation.

In its decision, the Chamber did point out that the suspension of adjudication is not provided for in the court's legal framework and that "the Chamber adjudicates requests submitted to it based on the supporting information and materials that are made available by the submitter at the time of the request."

It emphasized that it is the "defense's responsibility to ensure that all relevant information and materials in support of its requests are put before the Chamber at the time of submission, particularly when adjudication is sought on an urgent basis." 

However, since the request for an interim release before trial is a right provided for by the Rome Statute to any person that is the subject of a warrant arrest, the Chamber decided it best to defer the issuance of a decision based on the first issue, which should allow the defense team to assemble necessary information it needs to support the request for Duterte's interim release.

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"Accordingly, and to ensure that a decision on the Interim Release Request is appropriately informed, the Majority considers it appropriate, in the circumstances, to defer the issuance of its decision on the Interim Release Request until further action is undertaken by the Defense on the matter, or until when the Chamber will deem it appropriate," the ICC Pre-trial Chamber said in its 5-page decision.

The Chamber however emphasized that the second issue, concerning the performance of certain procedures, has been rejected.

It also clarified that its "present decision shall not be construed as prejudging any matter to be determined in the context of the proceedings related to the Interim Release Request, including in its eventual decision thereon."