The International Criminal Court (ICC) Trial Chamber III rejected former President Rodrigo Duterte’s defense request to require expert verification for open-source and user-generated evidence in his crimes against humanity case.

In a decision dated September 28, the Chamber said imposing such a requirement could be unnecessary given the volume and breadth of evidence already submitted by the prosecution.

“Such obligation, if implemented, may in the event be unnecessary and could well have the effect of causing a needless delay to the start of the trial,” the Chamber said.

The defense had proposed adding an “expert verification” metadata field to the ICC’s NUIX evidence-management system to identify materials that might require an expert report before being submitted to the Chamber.