Former president Rodrigo Duterte formally appointed British-Israeli lawyer Nicholas Kaufman as the lead counsel of his defense team in the crimes against humanity of murder case before the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Former president Rodrigo Duterte and his British-Israeli lead counsel Nicholas Kaufman (Screengrab from ICC, ABS-CBN News video)
A document made available on the ICC website showed the Appointment of Counsel signed by the former president on March 17.
The document showed the formal appointment of Kaufman as Duterte’s counsel “for the purpose of legal assistance in the framework of the proceedings carried out before the International Criminal Court.”
For his part, Kaufman accepted the appointment and officially signed the confirmation also on March 17 to represent the former president in the ICC proceedings.
The Declaration / Acceptance of Appointment came with the Undertaking of Counsel, which swore that Kaufman will “perform my duties and exercise my mission before the International Criminal Court with integrity and diligence, honourably, freely, independently, expeditiously and conscientiously.”
Kaufman earlier said they are preparing “a strong defense” for the former president’s acquittal in his ICC case.
“I’m very confident of the strongest defense possible and I’m confident he will be acquitted indeed, even at earliest stage possible,” he told the Philippine media in The Hague.
Vice President Sara Duterte, who is also in The Netherlands to assist her father in forming a legal team, previously said that executive secretary Salvador Medialdea will withdraw as Duterte’s counsel once the defense team is finalized.
With only limited slots for lawyers to join as counsel, the official said they want every lawyer representing her father to have an ICC experience.
Medialdea, who flew with the former president in the chartered plane last week after he was arrested in the Philippines, stood as his counsel during the March 14 pre-trial hearing at the ICC.
But on Tuesday, March 18 (Netherlands time), the former Palace official was rushed to the hospital in The Hague for an undisclosed medical emergency.
The Vice President furthered that former Palace spokesman Harry Roque, an ICC-accredited counsel, will also not join the former president’s defense team because of questions surrounding his stay in the Netherlands.
Roque, who is the subject of a congressional warrant for his alleged links to the illegal online offshore gambling in the country, said he would seek asylum in the Netherlands.
The younger Duterte said, however, that they want her father’s lawyers to solely focus on the ICC case.