THE HAGUE (Reuters) -Lawyers for detained former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte say he suffers from significant cognitive deficiencies that affect his memory and daily functioning, documents made public by the International Criminal Court on Thursday showed.
Duterte, 80, was arrested and taken to The Hague in March on an arrest warrant that linked him to murders committed during his “war on drugs” where thousands of alleged narcotics peddlers and users were killed.
His lawyers have since then argued he is unfit to stand trial.
According to details from their August 18 defence request released on Thursday, the condition affects his executive functioning, orientation and his capacity for complex reasoning.
Duterte has maintained his arrest was unlawful and tantamount to kidnapping.
Earlier this week, judges postponed hearings on the confirmation of the charges against Duterte set for later this month to deal first with the defence request to rule on the former president’s fitness for trial.
It is not known when the judges will rule if the ICC case can go ahead. Many details and the exact medical condition underlying the alleged cognitive decline have been redacted in court documents.
It is rare for international courts to find suspects, even increasingly elderly suspects, wholly unfit for trial. If a suspect is declared unfit for trial that may not automatically lead to their release.
In 2023 a United Nations’ war crimes tribunal ruled elderly Rwandan genocide suspect Felicien Kabuga was unfit to stand trial because he has dementia. Kabuga remains in the U.N. detention unit in The Hague as no state has been willing to accept him for provisional release.
(Reporting by Stephanie van den Berg; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne)
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