MANILA, Philippines — President Rodrigo Duterte has threatened to have International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor Fatou Bensouda arrested if she comes to the country and starts conducting an investigation on his alleged human rights violations, saying she is “not a sovereign part” of the country “doing a sovereign function.”
The President added that he would not be intimidated by threats of trial for extrajudicial killings before the ICC, which he does not recognize.
“Don’t try to scare me with that court, that ICC. You are crazy. You scare me with prosecution,” he said during the Partido Demokratiko Pilipino–Lakas ng Bayan’s miting de avance in Pasig City on Saturday night.
‘Short, black prosecutor’
“Even your short, black prosecutor, if she comes here to investigate. You do that and I will arrest you. I will really have you arrested, honestly,” the President said, referring to Bensouda.
He said he would not allow himself to be judged by foreign ICC prosecutors.
“You are not a sovereign part of my country doing a sovereign function, investigating people for a crime. Why would you come here to investigate? I will hurl you out of the window,” he said.
He added: “You’re a shit and I will not allow myself to be judged. The whites? Why would you bring me there? Why should I face judges who are not? I don’t even know what your job is.”
Last month, Malacañang criticized the ICC for continuing its probe on the President’s war against illegal drugs, saying its actions were an interference to the Philippines’ sovereignty.
It would never prosper
On Saturday, the President said he was unfazed with his critics’ threats to bring him before the ICC, saying he was confident that it would never prosper as the Philippines was never an ICC member.
“They did not publish it. As the Supreme Court said, that every law, especially penal laws, criminal statutes, must be published. If you do not publish it, it is not a law at all. Like there was no law at all,” the Presidentsaid.
“So nothing was appended in the true agreement because that was a spurious and illegal document for not following the requirements of due process. Because we have a Constitution,” he added.
The President derided his critics who repeatedly warned that he could be prosecuted before the ICC, saying he was the only one who argued that the Rome Statute was not published.