ICC Appeals Chamber rejects Duterte’s appeal for interim release
By: Manuel Mogato | Published: November 29, 2025
Reading Time: 4 minutes
The Hague — The International Criminal Court’s appeal chamber has unanimously rejected an appeal from former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte for an interim release from detention.
The appeals chamber upheld the earlier decision by the pre-trial chamber I in September denying Duterte’s request for a temporary release due to the high risk of evading the court.
The decision was delivered in open court, but Duterte waived his right to attend the hearing. He remained in ICC custody.
Duterte was arrested in March at the Manila airport on his return from Hong Kong.
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The ICC had issued an arrest warrant for crimes against humanity for his role in thousands of killings from 2011 to 2019 in a drug war in Davao City and in the entire country when he was president. (Also read: What are Duterte’s options when the ICC arrest warrant is served?)
The Philippine police had admitted killing more than 6,000 people in legitimate police anti-illegal drug operations during Duterte’s presidency, but human rights advocates estimated more than 20,000 people were murdered.
The Pre-Trial Chamber had found that Duterte’s detention remained necessary pursuant to article 58(1)(b) of the Rome Statute, and that the conditions for release proposed were not sufficient to mitigate the risks it found in relation to Mr Duterte’s interim release.
The Pre-Trial Chamber also rejected the Defence’s argument that Duterte should be released for humanitarian reasons.
Duterte’s lawyers raised three grounds of appeal. It argued that the Pre-Trial Chamber erroneously found that Duterte poses a risk under article 58(1)(b) of the Rome Statute; the Pre-Trial Chamber erred in its rejection of the guarantees proposed by the State willing to receive him, and the Pre-Trial Chamber erred in law by failing to take into account humanitarian considerations in assessing the right to interim release.
The Appeals Chamber composed of Judge Luz del Carmen Ibáñez Carranza, Presiding Judge in this appeal, Judge Tomoko Akane, Judge Solomy Balungi Bossa, Judge Gocha Lordkipanidze and Judge Erdenebalsuren Damdin, rejected all three grounds of appeal.
After examining Duterte’s lawyers’ arguments, the appeals chamber found that the defense team failed to identify errors in the Pre-Trial Chamber’s reasoning or to demonstrate that the Pre-Trial Chamber’s conclusions were unreasonable.
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