Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte and 11 other senior officials were accused on Monday of mass murder before the International Criminal Court (ICC) for the unabated killings of crime and drug suspects.
The complaint was filed in The Hague-based court by a Filipino lawyer representing a self-confessed hitman of Duterte while he was still the mayor of the southern city of Davao.
Lawyer Jude Josue Sabio cited the thousands of drug and crime suspects who have been killed since Duterte took over as president in June 2016.
This is the first time that a Philippine leader has been accused of crimes against humanity.
Sabio said the killings started when Duterte became mayor of Davao City in 1988, a position that Duterte and his family have held since.
‘The grim statistics of more than 7,000 drug-related killings cannot be anything but grave, especially if viewed in the context of just seven months since Rodrigo Duterte became the president,’ he said in his 77-page complaint.
Sabio asked ICC chief prosecutor Fatuo Bensouda to take action on his complaint as it would be ‘the beginning of the end of this dark, obscene, murderous and evil era in the Philippines.’ Also included in the complaint were Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre, Philippine police chief Director General Roland de la Rosa, House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez and Solicitor General Jose Calida, among others.
The president's office has yet to issue a statement about the complaint.
While Duterte's drug war has drawn international condemnation, local surveys show that most Filipinos support the anti-crime campaign.
