The Prosecution of the International Criminal Court (ICC) and ICC judges Reine Adélaïde Sophie Alapini-Gansou and María del Socorro Flores Liera sought the dismissal of the disqualification request filed by the defense team of former president Rodrigo Duterte against the two judges.

In separate documents published on the ICC website on May 22, both camps refuted the defense’s claim that ruling on the jurisdiction issue of Duterte’s ICC case will lead to bias or conflict.

“Judges of the Court are professional judges and enjoy a presumption of impartiality,” an eight-page document by the prosecution read, adding that “judges regularly adjudicate the same, or similar, legal issues.”

“As such, their prior determinations on legal issues do not, under regular circumstances, create the appearance of conflict or impropriety . . . The Defence Request should be rejected because it fails to call into question the presumption of impartiality attached to the Judges,” the document, signed by ICC Deputy Prosecutor Mame Mandiaye Niang, stressed.

Alapini-Gansou and Liera also submitted an internal memorandum dated May 22 to the ICC’s Plenary of Judges, seeking the dismissal of the disqualification request by the defense team.

“At the outset, we stress that, fully mindful of the provisions of the Rome Statute and the Code of Judicial Ethics, we take very seriously our solemn undertaking to exercise our judicial functions impartially and conscientiously and always abide by them,” the judges, who both signed the three-page memorandum, said.

“We see no grounds in the current case that would have required us to seek to be excused or that could lead to our disqualification,” the document added.

Liera and Alapini-Gansou were members of the previous chamber that allowed the ICC prosecutor to initiate the investigation into Duterte’s brutal war on drugs in 2021 even as the Philippines withdrew its membership from the Rome Statute in March 2019.

They were also part of the chamber that ruled on the resumption of the investigation into 2023.

But both judges argued that when they ruled on the resumption of the investigation into Duterte’s case, it was done “within the limits of the relevant stage of the proceedings and without prejudice to any future determinations on the same issue” and that the decision did not yet consider the arguments that the defense now raises.

“Thus, it is untenable to suggest that judges cannot adjudicate a matter which is legally within their competence just because they previously issued judicial decisions at different stages of the proceedings in the same situation on the basis of different arguments,” the judges said.

“As mentioned earlier, judges are professionals capable of deciding on issues before them relying solely and exclusively on the evidence and submissions adduced in the particular case,” they added.

In response to the prosecution and the judges, ICC Judge Tomoko Akane, president of the Plenary of Judges, said in a four-page document dated May 23 that it has taken note of the arguments raised by the defense, the prosecution, and the judges, both of whom will not decide on the disqualification request.

The former president’s lead counsel Nicholas Kaufman has raised the jurisdiction issue on Duterte’s crimes against humanity charges as the Philippines has withdrawn from the Rome Statute before the investigation into the brutal war on drugs commenced.

Duterte is scheduled to appear for another pre-trial hearing for the confirmation of charges on Sept. 23. He has been detained in The Hague since March 12 after he was sent there following his arrest at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 3 on March 11.