Judge Joanna Korner has made clear that the International Criminal Court wants former president Rodrigo Duterte present when Trial Chamber III convenes its Sept. 7 status conference, a date she identified as one of the more consequential stops on the road to his November trial. Speaking at the second status conference in The Hague on Tuesday, June 23, Korner said that hearing would carry weight because the chamber will by then have received the reports it is awaiting.
“I rather feel the one on the 7th of September because by the time we’ve had the reports is likely to be an important one—and for that, certainly, Mr. Haynes, we would expect Mr. Duterte to be here unless there’s some medical issue,” Korner said.
That expectation was relayed to the court at the outset by Duterte’s lead counsel, British barrister Peter Haynes, who told the chamber the former president understood the judges’ wishes. “He’s fully aware that you will expect to see him sooner rather than later,” Haynes said. Duterte is also represented by associate counsel Kate Gibson, following the May departure of his former lead lawyer, Nicholas Kaufman.
Tuesday’s session proceeded without Duterte after he again waived his right to be present, an absence Korner agreed to excuse on grounds the proceeding would be short. “Again, Mr. Haynes, we’ve excused your client’s attendance today, but as I think we made clear, it’s only because it’s a relatively short hearing,” she told his counsel.
The timetable laid out by the chamber places a court-ordered medical assessment of Duterte’s fitness to stand trial at the center of the September discussion. Court-appointed experts are to file their findings by Aug. 18, with the Registry report following on Aug. 24. The September date sits within a tentative run of further conferences set for July 14, Oct. 13, and Nov. 2, some of which may be dropped if no issues require the parties’ attention.
The defendant has stayed out of public view since March 14, 2025, when he made his initial appearance before the ICC by video link from the court’s detention center in The Hague. He remains in the court’s custody.
The charges against Duterte run to three counts of crimes against humanity—murder and attempted murder—tied to deaths during the anti-narcotics drive he oversaw first as mayor of Davao City and afterward as the country’s president. Judges confirmed those charges in April, clearing the way for a trial the chamber has fixed to open Nov. 30.
