ICC appeals chamber upholds detention of Rodrigo Duterte in The Hague

The International Criminal Court Appeals Chamber on March 6 rejected former Philippine president Rodrigo Roa Duterte’s challenge to a January detention-review ruling and confirmed he will remain in pre-trial detention at ICC facilities in The Hague. A five-person Appeals Chamber voted unanimously to deny the defence’s request for immediate or provisional release, endorsing Pre-Trial Chamber I’s January 26 decision to remand Duterte.

The judgment, recorded in the ICC’s public summary, found that the defence failed to identify legal errors in the Pre-Trial Chamber’s handling of medical evidence and risk assessment under the Rome Statute. The Appeals Chamber noted that the defence’s medical report "does not include any new information" because the two practitioners selected by the defence had not conducted new examinations. The court affirmed that while updated medical reports may assist judicial assessments, the legal determination of risk factors under Article 58(1)(b) belongs to the Pre-Trial Chamber. The ICC summarized the outcome this way: "Having rejected or dismissed all of the Defence’s arguments, the Appeals Chamber today confirmed Pre‑Trial Chamber I’s decision."

Appeals Chamber president Judge Luz del Carmen Ibanez Carranza added for the record: "Having rejected the three grounds of appeal, the appeals chamber unanimously confirms the impugned decision." The court gave two principal rationales: the defence supplied no materially new medical facts to overturn the detention decision and substantial risks cited by the Pre-Trial Chamber, including potential flight and the ability to exert political influence, remained.

Prosecutors had opposed the appeal. Deputy Prosecutor Mame Mandiaye Niang said the defence "simply disagreed with the earlier ruling and did not identify a legal error justifying appellate review." The prosecution and human rights lawyers have pointed to allegations that Duterte’s anti-drug campaign resulted in "thousands of deaths," a central fact behind the ICC probe first opened as a preliminary investigation in February 2018. Duterte announced the Philippines’ withdrawal from the court shortly after that investigation began.

Duterte, who has been in ICC custody in the Netherlands since March 2025, was reported by one Philippine outlet to have entered custody on March 12, 2025. The Appeals Chamber’s analysis referenced his status as a former president and, as reported in media coverage, his post-election position as mayor of Davao City in assessing the risk that he could use political influence to evade proceedings.

Advocacy groups and victims’ relatives followed the hearing closely; human rights lawyer Kristina Conti told supporters she was "99 percent confident" the appeal would fail and said, "There’s a strong evidence why he should stay in jail."

Procedural questions remain. A defence filing aggregator reported a confirmation of charges hearing scheduled for February 23-27, 2026, a date range that precedes the Appeals judgment; the ICC’s public excerpts do not confirm those hearing dates. The Appeals Chamber’s decision preserves the status quo: Duterte remains detained while the court proceeds to the next phases of pre-trial scrutiny. The judgment signals the ICC’s insistence that detention decisions for high-profile former leaders be grounded in legal risk findings rather than medical reports alone, a posture likely to shape how the court handles future requests for provisional release.