{"id":155631,"date":"2026-02-23T09:43:02","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T08:43:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/155631-duterte-maintains-his-innocence-absolutely-defence-lawyer.html"},"modified":"2026-02-23T09:43:02","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T08:43:02","slug":"duterte-maintains-his-innocence-absolutely-defence-lawyer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/155631-duterte-maintains-his-innocence-absolutely-defence-lawyer.html","title":{"rendered":"Duterte 'maintains his innocence absolutely': defence lawyer"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n             Former Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte \"absolutely\" maintains his innocence, his defence lawyer told the International Criminal Court, as a pre-trial hearing against him opened on Monday.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n            Duterte, who was not in court, \"stands behind his legacy resolutely\" said his lawyer Nicholas Kaufman. \"He maintains his innocence absolutely.\"\n<\/p>\n<p>\n            Kaufman acknowledged that his client was \"a unique phenomenon\" who was \"gung-ho in his ways\" and was full of \"hyperbole, bluster and rhetoric.\"\n<\/p>\n<p>\n            However, he accused the prosecution of \"cherry-picking\" through Duterte's speeches, adding that many of them insist on the importance of sticking to the law.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n            The former president's speeches did not have \"lethal intent\" but aimed to \"instil fear in the hearts\" of criminals, said the lawyer.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n            Kaufman told ICC judges that the evidence against Duterte was \"wholly insufficient\" and the charges were \"grievously misplaced and politically motivated\".\n<\/p>\n<p>\n            The proceedings are a \"confirmation of charges\" hearing after which judges will weigh whether to move forward to a full trial. That decision will take up to 60 days.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Former Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte \"absolutely\" maintains his innocence, his defence lawyer told the International Criminal Court, as a pre-trial hearing against him opened on Monday. Duterte, who was not in court, \"stands behind his legacy resolutely\" said his lawyer Nicholas Kaufman. \"He maintains his innocence absolutely.\" Kaufman acknowledged that his client was \"a unique [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[553],"tags":[],"ji_location":[],"class_list":["post-155631","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-feed"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.3.1 (Yoast SEO v25.3.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Duterte &#039;maintains his innocence absolutely&#039;: defence lawyer - JusticeInfo.net<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/155631-duterte-maintains-his-innocence-absolutely-defence-lawyer.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Duterte &#039;maintains his innocence absolutely&#039;: defence lawyer\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Former Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte &quot;absolutely&quot; maintains his innocence, his defence lawyer told the International Criminal Court, as a pre-trial hearing against him opened on Monday. Duterte, who was not in court, &quot;stands behind his legacy resolutely&quot; said his lawyer Nicholas Kaufman. &quot;He maintains his innocence absolutely.&quot; Kaufman acknowledged that his client was &quot;a unique [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/155631-duterte-maintains-his-innocence-absolutely-defence-lawyer.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"JusticeInfo.net\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/JusticeInfo\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-02-23T08:43:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/JusticeInfoNet_logo_1200x630px.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"630\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"afp\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@justiceinfonet\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@justiceinfonet\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"afp\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"NewsArticle\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/155631-duterte-maintains-his-innocence-absolutely-defence-lawyer.html#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/155631-duterte-maintains-his-innocence-absolutely-defence-lawyer.html\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"afp\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/713d340ef5f218fc36ce9b4244364a7f\"},\"headline\":\"Duterte 'maintains his innocence absolutely': defence lawyer\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-02-23T08:43:02+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/155631-duterte-maintains-his-innocence-absolutely-defence-lawyer.html\"},\"wordCount\":174,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"AFP News Feed\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/155631-duterte-maintains-his-innocence-absolutely-defence-lawyer.html#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/155631-duterte-maintains-his-innocence-absolutely-defence-lawyer.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/155631-duterte-maintains-his-innocence-absolutely-defence-lawyer.html\",\"name\":\"Duterte 'maintains his innocence absolutely': defence lawyer - 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