ICC prosecutor updates trial brief vs Duterte

MANILA, Philippines —  The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) has filed a revised trial brief detailing the charges of crimes against humanity against former president Rodrigo Duterte.

Acting prosecutor Mame Mandiaye Niang filed the updated trial brief on Oct. 16 after the ICC Trial Chamber III denied the inclusion of one incident that the Office of the Prosecutor wanted to add to the charges.

“The prosecution has removed all references to Incident 57 in the Trial Brief and replaced them with ‘(DELETED)’ in order to retain cross-references,” read the three-page filing released on Wednesday.

“No amendments have been made to the prosecution’s List of Witnesses or its List of Evidence,” it added, stating that those relating to the removed incident is still relevant to the charges, particularly the “contextual elements of crimes against humanity and Mr. Duterte’s individual criminal responsibility.”

The incident was supposed to be included in the charges involving alleged murder of high-value targets, but falls outside the confirmed charges “of between around July 2016 and July 2017.”

Records show that it occurred “two weeks after” the covered period.