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MANILA, Philippines – International criminal lawyer Nicholas Kaufman has officially come on board the legal team of former president Rodrigo Duterte in the International Criminal Court (ICC), telling reporters in The Hague that a formal notification would be sent to the court on Tuesday, March 18, which incidentally was the same day that Salvador Medialdea fell ill.
Medialdea, 73 years old, was wheeled off to an ambulance Tuesday morning while registering at the Scheveningen prison supposedly to visit Duterte. After “falling ill,” according to the Philippine embassy in the Netherlands, Medialdea “received treatment at the hospital emergency room, [and] was brought to and is now in a regular hospital room.”
Medialdea, Duterte’s former executive secretary and longtime friend, had gone with the 79-year-old Duterte from Hong Kong to Manila to The Hague last March 11 in a stunning arrest and transfer by the Marcos government.
Senator Robin Padilla, who’s with them in The Hague, said it might be due to fatigue. “Si ES po ay ilang araw na pong hindi natutulog, pagod, sa edad niya….Bumaba na rin yung adrenaline niya, unti-unti kang sisingilin ng katawan mo,” Padilla said on a Facebook livestream. (The executive secretary has not slept in days, he’s tired, and consider his age also. His adrenaline has gone down, and that catches up with your body.)
Kaufman, a veteran defense lawyer in the ICC, proceeded to meet Duterte and said afterwards that the former president is in “good spirits” and that his appointment as counsel “might be introduced to the court system today,” he told Filipino journalists there as reported by ABS-CBN News.
Kaufman said that they are now preparing for “a strong defense.” Duterte is accused as an indirect co-perpetrator of state-sponsored extrajudicial killings either by cops or assassins in Davao City and in the war on drugs.
Asked if he was confident that he can bring Duterte home, as is the battlecry of his supporters, Kaufman said: “I certainly hope so.”
FATIGUE? A photo of former executive secretary Salvador Medialdea in a wheelchair before being taken to a hospital in The Hague on March 18, 2025, supposedly due to fatigue according to Senator Robin Padilla. Photo from Senator Padilla’s Facebook pageNicholas Kaufman’s track record
Kaufman, a British-Israeli barrister with a law pedigree from world-renowned University of Cambridge, is a trial lawyer not only in the ICC, but also other international tribunals, and this is seen to boost the defense of Duterte who’s accused of crimes against humanity by murder.
Kaufman’s recent clients include former Central African Republic (CAR) minister Maxime Jeoffroy Eli Mokom Gawaka, and former Congolese deputy prime minister Jean-Pierre Bemba. Both Mokom and Bemba had won their ICC cases — both accused of crimes against humanity — but Kaufman either withdrew or was removed as counsel before the decisive victories were secured.
In 2014, Kaufman withdrew as Bemba’s defense counsel because the latter could not pay him anymore, and the lawyer said it had become a “struggle to finance the defense of the suspect” and that he “never agreed to represent the suspect on a pro bono basis.” In 2016, the ICC Trial Chamber III found Bemba guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity for being the military commander responsible for murder, rape, and pillaging in CAR.
But in 2018, the appeals chamber reversed the conviction and acquitted Bemba, finding that there was an error in the judgment that he did not take “all necessary and reasonable measures to prevent or repress the crimes” of the rebel troops. The appeals chamber also ruled that Bemba was wrongfully convicted for specific crimes that were outside of the scope of charges.
This highlights the importance of the prosecution having an airtight case against the accused, bringing only the charges they can prove and attribute to Duterte.
In the Mokom case, the prosecution had Kaufman removed as his counsel in 2022 due to conflict of interest. The reasons cited were Kaufman’s previous discussions with clients who were substantially related to the Mokom case.
Like in Duterte’s case, Mokom had also alleged a violation of Article 59 of the Rome Statute, or the requirements for implementing an arrest and transfer, when he was arrested in Chad. In Mokom’s initial appearance, Kaufman went strong on this argument and said for his then-client: “This is not the first time that this court has heard several accounts of abuse of the hands of state parties to the Rome Statute.”
The Marcos government asserts that because we already withdrew from the ICC, we were not bound by Article 59, pointing out that Duterte was accorded all courtesies during his arrest.
The next year in 2023, the prosecution dropped the charges against Mokom because of the lack of evidence and witnesses. In the ICC, the prosecution considers the likelihood of conviction when pursuing cases. In Mokom’s case, the prosecution said “there are no longer any reasonable prospects of conviction at trial even if the charges were confirmed.”
In the ICC, defense lawyers enjoy a generally good reputation although they represent suspected war criminals. The community agrees that a good defense is an important part of a fair trial. Kaufman, who is Jewish, told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz in 2011 that it was his job to “represent anyone who needs my services” but that “of course I wouldn’t represent a Nazi war criminal.”
Duterte, who’s known for his vulgar speeches, scandalized the international community in 2016 when he said “[Nazi leader Adolf] Hitler massacred 3 million Jews. Now there [are] 3 million drug addicts…. I’d be happy to slaughter them.” Duterte has since apologized for the remark for offending the Jewish community and the victims of the Holocaust.
Late last year, a civilian Duterte faced the Senate and said he takes responsibility for all the killings committed by cops, because he said it was he who taught police to induce drug suspects to fight so there’s an excuse to shoot them.
Duterte’s confirmation of charges hearing has been set for September 23. His spokespeople have indicated plans to apply for an interim release pending trial, and it’s possible that judges can consider the application before September.
“Judges will have to decide on many issues between now and the date of a confirmation of charges. We can’t speculate about specific issues. Should there be requests, the judges will decide on them,” ICC spokesperson Fadi El Abdallah told reporters. – Rappler.com
