Former President Rodrigo Duterte’s defense team has moved to disqualify International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecutor Karim Khan from any further roles in the case against the former president, citing the latter’s failure to disclose a “grievous conflict of interest.”
“The extent of Mr Khan’s contamination of the integrity of the investigation against Mr Duterte will be litigated at the confirmation of changes hearing. For the time being, however, the Appeals Chamber is requested to disqualify Mr Khan from resuming a role in the case against Mr Duterte should he surmount his current difficulties,” lawyer Nicholas Kaufman wrote in a document dated August 7.
The defense team’s request stemmed from an alleged “irreconcilable conflict of interest” that arose out of Khan’s former representation—the alleged victims of the Duterte administration’s war on drugs. Kaufman wrote that Khan had acted as a private lawyer at the time, exploiting the information he had gathered when he assumed the role of chief ICC prosecutor in June 2021.
“In these circumstances, and absent information to the contrary, Mr Khan abused the criminal process to push forward an investigation in which he had an undeclared personal interest or, at the very least, an undeclared personal obligation from which he had not sought to release himself,” the document read.
Given that the confirmation of charges hearing is scheduled for September 23, 2025, the defense team requested that the Appeals Chamber adjudicate their motion swiftly.
Khan is on a self-imposed leave until the end of the United Nations (UN) Office of the Internal Oversight Services’ investigation into an alleged sexual misconduct.
He was formally sworn in as chief prosecutor of the ICC on June 16, 2021, after former Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda announced in February 2018 that she would be opening a preliminary investigation into Duterte’s war on drugs and extrajudicial killings.
In 2021, Bensouda formally requested the opening of an investigation into the “Situation in the Republic of the Philippines,” emphasizing that any authorized investigation into the matter will fall to her able successor, Khan, to take forward.
The prosecution team, currently led by Deputy Prosecutor Mame Mandiaye Niang, has yet to comment on the case.
Duterte was arrested by the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) on March 11, based on a warrant issued by the International Chamber. He was immediately taken into custody by the ICC and flown to The Hague, in the Netherlands, where he is now awaiting trial for crimes against humanity, specifically during the war on drugs.
Duterte had previously applied for an interim release to an undisclosed country, citing his willingness to cooperate with the court.
