Former broadcaster Jay Sonza claimed that the International Criminal Court dropped another batch of incidents from former president Rodrigo Duterte’s crimes against humanity case following a supposed removal earlier of “253 incidents.” This is misleading.
Originally published on Oct. 22 as a text, with no graphics included, the post read:
“After dropping 253 incidents, ICC today drops another batch of incidents from the case vs. Rodrigo Duterte!”
A day later, the caption was edited to specify Duterte’s case and added two graphics about the ICC prosecution’s actual dropping of one drug-related killing incident.
A quick review of The Hague-based tribunal’s official records showed that the prosecution filed no document on the same day as Sonza’s post regarding the alleged removal of certain incidents from the former chief executive’s case.
Contrary to his use of the phrase “another batch of incidents,” the ICC prosecutors have dropped only one killing of a high-value drug target, listed as Incident 57, after the Trial Chamber III ruled on Oct. 9 that it took place outside the temporal parameters of Count 2.
Among the three counts of crimes against humanity filed against Duterte, Count 2 covers the murders of “high-value targets” across the Philippines during Duterte’s first year as president, from July 2016 to July 2017.
Meanwhile, the figure Sonza cited likely refers to the 253 items, not killing incidents, that the ICC prosecution removed as it restructured its evidence list it intended to present at Duterte’s trial set to begin on Nov. 30, based on a public redacted filing dated Oct. 12.
The deceptive post surfaced two days after the prosecution filed an updated version of its Trial Brief, deleting all references to Incident 57 pursuant to the chamber’s order.
“No amendments have been made to the prosecution’s List of Witnesses or its List of Evidence because: (i) [REDACTED]; and (ii) [REDACTED], combined with other evidence relating to Incident 57, is relevant to [REDACTED], the contextual elements of crimes against humanity, and Mr Duterte’s individual criminal responsibility,” the Oct. 20 submission noted.
As of writing, Sonza’s inaccurate claim has received 32,800 reactions; 1,300 comments and 1,000 shares.
