Update, May 18 :The ICC has released the appointment of Haynes in Duterte’s handwriting.
Peter Haynes will represent former president Rodrigo Duterte in his crimes against humanity cases when trial begins at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands.
This was officially revealed by former Duterte counsel, Nicholas Kaufman , in the unredacted version of his notice of withdrawal to ICC’s Trial Chamber III.
Haynes’ LinkedIn account describes him as ”Defence trial advocate with substantial experience before both the ad hoc international criminal tribunals, and the International Criminal Court (ICC), including ‘the largest criminal trial since the second world war’ (Popovic et al.,). One of the few advocates to have conducted a trial at the ICC.”
He is known for securing the acquittal of all charges on appeal of Jean-Pierre Bemba, the minister of defense and senator of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
It is worth noting that Kaufman was his co-defense counsel in the Bemba case.
In Kaufman’s May 8 request for withdrawal as Duterte’s counsel, he mentioned the hiring of a new lawyer but redacted the name. The Chamber granted his withdrawal from the Duterte case May 11 with the instruction to unredact the identity of the new counsel.
Kaufman, in three media interviews, said it was Duterte’s daughter, Kitty and her mother, Honeylet Avanceña, the former president’s common law companion, who first informed him of the hiring of Haynes. He also said Avanceña now handles the funds for Duterte’s legal cases.
The date of the trial will be decided at the First Status Conference among parties concerned on May 27.
