Rodrigo Duterte arrives in the Netherlands to face crimes against humanity charges

Rodrigo Duterte, the former president of the Philippines, has arrived in the Netherlands to face charges linked to the deadly crackdown on drugs he oversaw while in office.

A plane carrying the former leader of the southeast Asian country landed at Rotterdam airport shortly before 4pm UK time on Wednesday.

It was due to land at around 6am but was delayed after a long layover in Dubai, where Duterte received medical checks.

The 79-year-old was arrested for alleged crimes against humanity on a warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC), based in The Hague, early on Tuesday.

Read more: Philippines’ war on drugs

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr said officers detained Duterte when he returned from a trip to Hong Kong, and sent him to the ICC.

Mr Marcos Jr – who has not re-joined the ICC after Duterte withdrew the Philippines from its founding treaty in 2019 – noted the arrest was made in compliance with Interpol.

The ICC case centres on thousands of killings that took place during the former leader’s brutal crackdown on illegal drugs from 2011, when he was a city mayor, to the end of his presidency in 2022.

Police say more than 6,200 people were killed in what they describe as shootouts while he was president from 2016 to 2022.

Human rights groups and the prosecutor of the ICC say as many as 30,000 people may have been killed.

Police or vigilantes working for them, such as gunmen on motorbikes, were alleged to have killed masses of unarmed suspects while he was in charge. Authorities have denied the claims.

In its warrant, ICC judges said there were “reasonable grounds to believe that [Mr] Duterte is individually responsible for the crime against humanity of murder”.

It accuses Duterte of being criminally responsible for the murders of at least 43 people between 2011 and 2019.

Should the case progress, Duterte would be the first Asian former head of state to stand trial at the ICC.

The former president’s team declared the arrest unlawful and vowed to fight it.

During a senate inquiry last year, Duterte admitted to having a “death squad” of “gangsters” while he served as mayor of the southern city of Davao but denied authorising police to shoot suspects when he became president.

The ex-president’s administration also tried to suspend the ICC probe in late 2021, arguing it didn’t have jurisdiction and saying domestic authorities were already looking at the claims.

Judges in The Hague rejected the objections two years ago and said the investigation could continue.

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