Event: the International Criminal Court

AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTYou have a preview view of this article while we are checking your access. When we have confirmed access, the full article content will load.Judges at the International Criminal Court have heard starkly different interpretations this week of the words of former President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines.Outside the International Criminal Court this week. Hearings have drawn critics and supporters of Rodrigo Duterte, who as president of the Philippines ordered a brutal crackdown on drugs.Credit...Simon Wohlfahrt/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesFeb. 27, 2026, 11:45 a.m. ET“They say I’m the death squad. True. That’s true,” former President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines said in one video clip. “I have a death squad,” he said in another. In a third, he addressed drug dealers and users: “Either I get what I want, or you perish. What does that mean? That means killings.”Prosecutors at the International Criminal Court have tried this week to use Mr. Duterte’s own words, in part, to persuade judges to order him to face trial on charges of crimes against humanity, which he denies. The accusations stem from a devastating crackdown on drugs over several years, 2011 to 2019, while he was a mayor and then president. Rights groups say that police officers and vigilantes who were part of the crackdown killed tens of thousands of people, including children.The prosecution’s strategy was almost theatrical in its simplicity. It submitted 20 of Mr. Duterte’s speeches to make its case. But Mr. Duterte’s defense also used his words, submitting 35 other speeches to argue that a trial was without merit.On Thursday, the lead defense lawyer, Nicholas Kaufman, said that prosecutors had failed to mention that the speeches to security forces presented as evidence also included what he said were exhortations by Mr. Duterte to follow the law.“The order is simply this:…