Manila, Mar 12 (EFE).- The charter flight carrying former Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte, who was arrested in Manila for alleged crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court (ICC), was on a stopover in Dubai on Wednesday on its way to the Netherlands.
The Gulfstream G550 stopped over in Dubai and is expected to take off at around 6.55 am local time (02:55 GMT) to arrive in Rotterdam shortly before 11 am, according to the flight specialist website Flightradar24. Rotterdam is situated near the Hague, where the ICC is based.
Duterte’s youngest daughter, Veronica Duterte, posted a picture of the plane on Instagram, claiming it was used to “kidnap” her father, who is now the first former Asian leader to be served an arrest warrant over charges filed at the ICC.
Duterte, 79, is accompanied by his former executive secretary, Salvador Medialdea, a nurse and a former personal assistant, the Inquirer reported.
Vice President Sara Duterte, who has been highly critical of her father’s arrest and who claimed he was “forcibly taken” out of the country, also flew out of Manila bound for the Netherlands on Wednesday at 7.40 am local time, her office said.
The former president’s plane left Villamor Air Base in Manila at 11 pm local time on Tuesday, some 14 hours after he was arrested for alleged crimes against humanity during his so-called “war on drugs” upon returning from a campaign trip to Hong Kong.
“Earlier this morning, Interpol Manila received the official copy of the warrant of arrest from the International Criminal Court (ICC),” the presidential office said in a statement. “As of now, he is in custody.”
The ICC’s arrest warrant considered that there are “reasonable grounds” to believe that Duterte led a death squad in Davao city as mayor and used his presidential power to carry out extrajudicial killings in the name of his war on drugs.
During his 2016-2022 presidential term, some 30,000 people were killed in his war on drugs, according to human rights groups.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said at a late-night press conference Tuesday night that Duterte’s departure for The Hague will allow his predecessor “to face charges of crimes against humanity in relation to his bloody war on drugs.”
He added that his government made the arrest in compliance with Interpol and followed correct procedures in accordance with its international commitments, and not out of political revenge, as Sara Duterte has claimed.
In the past, the son of late dictator Ferdinand Marcos had refused to cooperate with the ICC investigation, and he and Sara Duterte forged a successful alliance that won the 2022 presidential election.
Their ties—and Marcos Jr’s ICC stance—shifted, however, as their alliance descended into a public feud that led to death threats from the vice president against the president and to ongoing impeachment proceedings against her.
The ICC’s investigation into extrajudicial killings spans between 2011 and 2019, covering Duterte’s time as mayor of Davao, where he implemented a similar anti-drugs policy, and into his presidency, up until he withdrew the Philippines from the body. EFE
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