The prosecution in the crimes against humanity case of former president Rodrigo Duterte at the International Criminal Court intends to present five witnesses who will testify at this year’s trial that will start on Nov. 30.
During the fourth status conference on Oct. 13, senior trial lawyer Julian Nicholls of the prosecution team confirmed that they plan to present witnesses identified as P-1302, P-1100, P-1400, P-1263 and P-0009 at trial before the court takes a Christmas break.
“They will all be present unless something unforeseen [happens], that’s the plan,” Nicholls said.
Duterte attended the status conference, marking his second in-person appearance before the ICC judges since his arrest in March 2025. He was in all black outfit and was attentive during the 25-minute hearings.
The Trial Chamber III earlier granted the prosecution’s request to admit into evidence the written statement of witness P-1100 concerning the modus operandi of the Davao Death Squad and Duterte’s “neutralization” policy. The chamber allowed the prosecution one hour to question P-1100 live at trial.
Nicholls said they will file a similar request for witness P-1400, while the other individuals will give oral testimony when they appear in court.
Aside from the list of witnesses, the parties also tackled the ongoing dispute on the volume of evidence disclosed by the prosecution.
The prosecution cited its proposals that will reduce the amount of disclosed items, including an agreed fact that would establish the number of drug war-related deaths during the first term of Duterte’s presidency based on the 2017 report of the Presidential Communication Operations Office.
“Our proposed agreed facts are 3,400 deaths, and the president’s administration for the same time period says 3,697 deaths. So this shouldn’t be difficult to come to an agreement on,” Nicholls said.
The prosecution also suggested hiring a joint expert to count and analyze the dataset, which defense lead counsel Peter Haynes declined.
The chamber appears to agree with the prosecution’s proposed measures.
“Mr. Haynes, I simply don’t understand why,” Trial Chamber III President Judge Joanna Korner said.
“It would seem to me, and it seems to us, I should say, that the prosecution are making all attempts to assist you in this, and you’re just refusing it,” Korner added.
To settle the dispute, the chamber then ordered the prosecution to review its database to indicate to the defense what materials could be considered exculpatory.
It also ordered the defense to provide the prosecution search terms so that they can search for the material it considers relevant to its arguments, and take advantage of any assistance to examine the database of evidence.
Duterte’s trial is scheduled to begin on Nov. 30 for three counts of murder as crimes against humanity arising from killings tied to drug war operations allegedly committed from Nov. 1, 2011 to March 16, 2019.
