The former president of the Philippines Rodrigo Duterte has been arrested by the Asian country police after the International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued an arrest warrant, accusing him of crimes against humanity during his bloody campaign against drugs. Duterte has been arrested at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Manila upon arrival of Hong Kong, where he participated in an electoral act prior to the elections on May 12 among rumors about his arrest warrant.
The arrest took place after the Manila Interpol office received the official copy of the CPI arrest order, as indicated by the presidential office in a statement. Duterte and his companions arrived at the airport at 9:20 local time (1:20 GMT), at which time the attorney general of the Asian country has presented the notification of the CPI for crimes against humanity, and the former president has been escorted by security forces outside the airport.
According to the presidential office statement, the 79 -year -old politician enjoys good health and has been examined by a medical team after being arrested. The ex -president carried out a war against drugs during his termbetween 2016 and 2022, in which some 6,000 people died in anti -drug operations and extrajudicial executions, according to police figures, although local non -governmental organizations raise this figure to more than 30,000.
The International Criminal Court began an investigation by extrajudicial executionsdespite the fact that Duterte withdrew Philippines from the agency in 2019 to avoid being involved, and in 2021 he linked the authorities and security forces with the crimes committed. Relatives of victims of the former president’s drugs have celebrated their arrest without reservations.
“This measure by the CPI is proof of the validity of our call to ask Duterte accounts And his accomplices for carrying out the war on drugs, “said the Rise Up association, which combines relatives of the victims of the brutal anti -narcotics campaign of the former president.” I am crying, I really wanted to see it in jail. They will pay for what they did to us, “said Jane Lee, a woman of one of the victims of the war against Duterte, according to the note.
What crime have I committed?
The former president himself has questioned his detention shortly after it was carried out. “What is the law and what is the crime I have committed?“Duterte asked from the Villamor Air Base, where he has been transferred after his arrest. Duterte has claimed to have been transferred to the” against “base of his own will and has questioned the reasons for his detention by the Filipina Police by stating that they have not presented the reasons for his arrest.
Verónica Duterte, who is together with her father in the military base, He has also described the illegal arrest in lack of court order. These statements are added to other similar ones pronounced in the last hours by politician’s followers, among the calls to the calm of Senator Bong Go, the special president of the former president, who has regretted however that the authorities did not let him enter the military base to which he had displaced a pizza to the detainee himself.
Source: Lasexta
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