A French lawyer with experience at the International Criminal Court (ICC) has joined the legal team of former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte.
A court document released on April 7 confirmed that Dov Jacobs, an expert in international criminal law, is now working as associate counsel for Duterte. He will assist Nicholas Kaufman, a British-Israeli lawyer, who is leading Duterte’s defense.
It’s still unclear if more lawyers will join, but Kaufman said his main team is already complete.
Jacobs has worked on big cases before. He helped defend former Ivory Coast president Laurent Gbagbo, who was accused of crimes against humanity but was later found not guilty. He is also currently part of the defense team for Mahamat Said Abdel Kani, a former general from the Central African Republic who is on trial for war crimes.
According to his personal website, Jacobs is an expert in international and criminal law. He teaches public international law in the Netherlands and has taught in French universities. He studied at King’s College in London, several universities in Paris, and earned a doctorate in Florence, Italy.
On LinkedIn, Jacobs shared his opinion about Duterte’s arrest and being turned over to the ICC. He said Duterte was not given the chance to go before a local judge, which might go against Article 59 of the Rome Statute, the treaty that created the ICC. This article says arrested persons should be brought to a proper judge to check if their rights were respected.
Jacobs said that in the past, the ICC has not been very strict about this rule, based on his experience with the Gbagbo case. But he believes the issue will be discussed early in Duterte’s trial.
Some say the Philippines doesn’t have to follow this rule anymore, since it already left the ICC. The Marcos government also referred to a local law — Republic Act 9851 — which allows the Philippines to stop its own investigation if another court is already working on the case.
Jacobs said that whether the ICC has the right to handle Duterte’s case will be talked about a lot in the beginning phase.
Kaufman also plans to challenge the ICC’s right to judge the case before the main hearing, which is planned for September 23.
Kaufman has also asked ICC judges to accept only national ID cards or passports with photos from people who want to join the case as victims. He said this will help avoid fraud and make sure victims are real.
In an April 7 document, Kaufman told the ICC that if no official ID is available, only those accepted by the Philippine social security system should be used.
The ICC Registry earlier said it would allow a wide range of IDs, including certificates and other government-issued documents from the Philippine Statistics Authority and similar offices.
But Kaufman warned that using too many different types of ID might cause errors, fake entries, or double-counting of victims.
On the other hand, Kristina Conti, one of the lawyers helping the drug war victims, said Kaufman’s suggestions are too strict and could unfairly block many real victims from joining.
She said it’s hard for many poor Filipinos to get national IDs or passports. “Their rules will just make it harder for victims to join, and that’s not fair,” she said.
