The prosecution panel of the International Criminal Court (ICC) plans to present five witnesses in person before the end of the year in the crimes against humanity case against former president Rodrigo Duterte.
During the fourth status conference of Trial Chamber III on Tuesday, Presiding Judge Joanna Korner asked the prosecution to confirm how many witnesses were expected to testify in person before the trial begins on November 30.
ICC Senior Trial Lawyer Julian Nicholls identified the five witnesses by their numerical codes: 1302, 1100, 1400, 1263 and 0009, noting that their appearances would proceed as planned unless unforeseen circumstances arise.
“They will all be present unless something unforeseen… that’s the plan; they will all be here. They will be 1302, 1100, 1400, 1263, and 0009… those are the five that we plan for this year,” Nicholls said.
The witnesses’ identities are withheld through numerical codes for their protection. Nicholls also acknowledged that some witnesses might not be called to testify, including cases in which multiple witnesses could provide similar accounts.
“We do expect that all the witnesses won’t be called, and we expect that some of the ones I won’t go into the reasons for now, but some of the witnesses we hope to call will not appear,” he said.
Meanwhile, Korner questioned the prosecution’s plan to submit 1,000 newspaper clippings documenting killings in Davao City during Duterte’s tenure as mayor. Nicholls defended the proposed evidence, saying the reports could help establish the number of killings during a period when such incidents were not systematically tracked.
Korner also outlined the schedule for the trial’s opening week, from November 30 to December 4, which will consist of four daily sessions, with breaks between proceedings.
Duterte faces charges of crimes against humanity before the ICC in connection with his administration’s anti-drug campaign. The trial is scheduled to open on November 30 in The Hague, Netherlands.
