The International Criminal Court Thursday rejected claims it is not competent to judge the Philippines' former President Rodrigo Duterte, who is accused of crimes against humanity.
Duterte's defence last May contested the court's right to judge the 80-year-old former head of state, saying the Asian country had withdrawn from the court's jurisdiction.
But in a statement Friday, the ICC said it found "that the Court can exercise its jurisdiction in the present case over the crimes alleged against Mr. Duterte that were committed on the territory of the Philippines while it was a State Party."
Duterte faces three charges of crimes against humanity for his involvement in killings committed as part of his "war on drugs", which allegedly claimed thousands of lives.
He was arrested in Manila in March, transferred to the Netherlands, and has been held since in the ICC's detention centre in The Hague.
Shortly after the arrest, Duterte's lawyer, Nicholas Kaufman, told AFP that the court did not have jurisdiction because the Philippines' March 17, 2019 withdrawal from the ICC had become effective well before an investigation was opened in that country.
But the ICC said the crimes attributed to Duterte were committed while the country was a party to the Treaty of Rome that set up the court.
ICC prosecutors have accused him of involvement in at least 76 murders related to his "war on drugs".
The first of the three charges concerns 19 murders committed between 2013 and 2016, when Duterte was mayor of Davao City. The second relates to 14 killings of alleged drug bosses in 2016 and 2017, when he was president. And the third covers 43 killings of suspected low-level drug users or dealers.
In early October, the ICC denied a request for medical parole, pending a decision on Duterte's fitness to appear in court.
