THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte appeared Friday by videoconference before judges at the International Criminal Court, days after his arrest in Manila on murder charges linked to the deadly “war on drugs” he oversaw while in office.
The 79-year-old Duterte didn’t show up at the court in The Hague, but appeared on a video screen from the detention center where he is being held, about a mile (1½ kilometers) away.
If anyone deserves it… At 79, I doubt he’ll survive his time in a civil detention. But were a bunch of the relatives and friends of his victims to show up at his jail cell and afford him the Mussolini treatment, I could hardly blame them.
But its so unusual for a guy like this to get held to account, I suppose I shouldn’t complain. Normally, your Francos and Batistas and Pinochets and Pahlavis die in the lap of luxury. Very rarely do you get a Noriega or Park whose crimes finally catch up with them.