Ex-president served Interpol arrest warrant on his arrival at Manila\u2019s main airport
\n MANILA
\nThe Philippines\u2019 firebrand former president Rodrigo Duterte was arrested on Tuesday at the request of the International Criminal Court (ICC) marking a key development in the probe concerning thousands of alleged extrajudicial killings in a bloody \u201cwar on drugs\u201d that defined his presidency.
\nThe \u201cwar on drugs\u201d was Duterte\u2019s signature campaign policy that swept the maverick, crime-busting mayor to power in 2016, delivering on promises he made during vitriolic speeches to kill thousands of narcotics dealers.
\nDuterte, 79, has repeatedly defended the crackdown. He denies ordering the murders of drug suspects and said he instructed police to kill only in self-defence.
\nHowever, the former president was served an Interpol arrest warrant on his arrival at Manila\u2019s main airport and was in custody, the office of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr said in a statement.
\nThe arrest follows years of Duterte taunting the ICC since he unilaterally withdrew the Philippines from the court\u2019s founding treaty in 2019 as it started looking into allegations of systematic extrajudicial killings on his watch.
\nThe Philippines had until last year refused to cooperate with an investigation into alleged crimes against humanity by the ICC, which says it has jurisdiction to probe incidents while a country is a member.
\nIn a video posted on Instagram by daughter Veronica Duterte from his custody at Manila\u2019s Villamor Air Base, Duterte questioned the reason for his arrest.
\n\u201cWhat is the law and what is the crime that I committed?\u201d he said in the video. It was unclear who he was speaking to.
\n\u201cI was brought here not of my own volition, it is somebody else\u2019s. You have to answer now for the deprivation of liberty.\u201d
\nSlumland deaths
\nAccording to police, 6,200 suspects were killed during anti-drug operations that they say ended in shootouts. But activists say the real toll of the crackdown was far greater, with thousands of slumland drug users, many of whom were included on official \u201cwatch lists\u201d, killed in mysterious circumstances.
\nPolice deny involvement in those killings and reject allegations from rights groups of systematic executions and cover-ups.
\nNews outlets earlier on Tuesday showed video footage of Duterte dressed in a jacket and striped polo shirt and walking casually through a corridor at the airport upon his return from Hong Kong, accompanied by members of the police Criminal Investigation and Detection Group and uniformed officers close by.
\nDuterte\u2019s ally and former legal counsel Salvador Panelo said the arrest was unlawful and police had denied the former president legal representation.
\n\u201cThe ICC arrest warrant comes from a spurious source, the ICC, which has no jurisdiction over the Philippines,\u201d Panelo said in a statement.
\nHuman Rights Watch called the arrest \u201ca critical step for accountability in the Philippines\u201d and said authorities should swiftly hand Duterte over to the ICC.
\n\u201cHis arrest could bring victims and their families closer to justice and sends the clear message that no one is above the law,\u201d it said in a statement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ex-president served Interpol arrest warrant on his arrival at Manila\u2019s main airport MANILA The Philippines\u2019 firebrand former president Rodrigo Duterte was arrested on Tuesday at the request of the International Criminal Court (ICC) marking a key development in the probe concerning thousands of alleged extrajudicial killings in a bloody \u201cwar on drugs\u201d that defined his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":466604,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-466575","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n