Philippine lawyer to withdraw ICC complaint against Duterte

MANILA, Jan 14 (Reuters) - A Philippines lawyer who filed a
complaint at the International Criminal Court (ICC) accusing
President Rodrigo Duterte of murder in a bloody anti-drugs
crackdown said on Tuesday he will no longer pursue the case.
The complaint filed by attorney Jude Sabio in 2017 is one of
several communications to the court calling for Duterte's
indictment over thousands of alleged extrajudicial killings
during his campaign against narcotics.
"I fervently request that it be expunged or erased from the
record, and that it should not be used in any way in the ongoing
preliminary examination," Sabio said in a 28-page letter
addressed to ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda.
Sabio is the lawyer for Edgar Matobato, a man who has
testified in the Philippines Senate that he was part of a hit
squad that operated on Duterte's orders.
In his letter, Sabio said the ICC case had been used by
opposition politicians as a "tool for propaganda" and should
therefore be "thrashed and set aside".
Former Senator Antontio Trillanes, one of Duterte's most
vocal opponents, said the president's allies must have a hand in
Sabio's decision, saying it was an indication they are worried
about the ICC case.
There was no immediate comment from Duterte's office.
Under ICC rules, a prosecution could still proceed after a
submission were withdrawn by an external party.
While a complaint from a single, external party could alert
the prosecutor to possible crimes, it would not in itself be the
basis for a case. The prosecutor's office would initiate its own
investigation to determine whether crimes under the ICC's
statute had been committed and warranted charges.
In a December 2019 report, the office of the ICC prosecutor
said it would aim to finalise a preliminary examination to
enable it to reach a decision on whether to seek authorisation
to open an investigation into the Philippines.
Duterte has been dismissive of the ICC process.
The firebrand leader unilaterally withdrew in March 2018
from the ICC's founding treaty, saying it skirted due process
and the presumption of his innocence and sought to portray him
as a "ruthless and heartless violator of human rights".
Last month he said he would refuse to cooperate if put on
trial. Human rights groups say Duterte's anti-drugs crackdown
involved systematic executions and police cover-ups. Police
reject that and say the nearly 7,000 people they have killed
were armed drug suspects who resisted arrest.