Australia turns down hosting Duterte if ICC grants interim release
The Australian government has declined to host former President Rodrigo Duterte should the International Criminal Court (ICC) grant his request for interim release.
While it is aware that Duterte applied for interim release to a third unnamed country, Australia is not considering to grant such a request as the matter is best left in the hands of the ICC, GMA News Online learned Friday.
In applying for interim release, Duterte's camp previously told the chamber that an undisclosed country has agreed to take in the former president, who is facing charges of crimes against humanity over his administration's war on drugs.
Earlier this week, Vice President Sara Duterte said the former president, her father, is looking at Australia as one of the countries for his possible interim release.
Australia is a party to the Rome Statute, the founding treaty of the International Criminal Court.
Duterte is currently under ICC custody in The Hague, Netherlands.
Meanwhile, the Office of the Prosecutor has asked the ICC Pre-Trial Chamber to deny Duterte's interim release request.
The prosecution also denied that any agreement was reached with the defense regarding Duterte's release to the country proposed by the Duterte camp. Further, the prosecution said it agreed under the condition that Duterte would be released to another country. — VDV, GMA Integrated News
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