MANILA, Philippines — Former president Rodrigo Duterte will again skip the status conference to be held today ahead of his trial for crimes against humanity before the International Criminal Court.
The ICC Trial Chamber III has again allowed Duterte to be represented by his defense team led by British lawyer Peter Haynes.
The judges earlier allowed the former president to skip the proceedings after the defense noted that the mandatory obligation for an accused to be present at trial does not apply to other hearings such as status conferences that are “essentially administrative in nature.”
Today’s schedule will cover deadlines for the filing of observations to the expert panel reports, the adoption of a protocol on handling confidential information and the page limit of the prosecution’s trial brief.
The judges and the parties are also expected to discuss the dates for the next status conferences after the judicial recess, as well as some public statements made by an unidentified counsel.
The status conference will be held from 10 a.m. to noon in The Hague (4 p.m. to 6 p.m. in Manila). It will be livestreamed with a 30-minute delay. The first status conference in the case was held last May 27.