January 12, 2026
MANILA – The International Criminal Court’s Pre-Trial Chamber I (ICC PTC I) has rejected a request from former President Rodrigo Duterte’s legal team seeking permission to appeal an earlier ruling that denied their motion to access communications between the court’s registry and the panel of experts assessing his fitness to stand trial.
On December 17, Duterte’s defense filed the request, arguing that the PTC erred by not considering the materiality of the information to the preparation of the defense or the potential risks to the investigation or witnesses.
In a five-page filing dated January 9, the PTC noted the exceptional nature of interlocutory appeals, emphasizing that specific requirements must be met for leave to appeal to be granted:
(a) The decision must involve an issue that would significantly affect either the fair and expeditious conduct of the proceedings or the outcome of the trial; and
(b) In the Pre-Trial Chamber’s view, an immediate resolution of the issue by the Appeals Chamber is warranted, as it may materially advance the proceedings.
The PTC said an appealable “issue” is an identifiable subject or matter that requires a decision for resolution, not merely a point of disagreement or conflicting opinion.
It added that an appealable issue must arise from the relevant decision itself and cannot be a hypothetical concern or abstract legal question.
“At the outset, the chamber notes that, in the request, to a large extent the defense only repeats or develops arguments in an attempt to relitigate issues that have been addressed in the decision on Disclosure of Communications, including whether granting the Defence’s access to the information sought in the Request for Disclosure of Communications is warranted,” the PTC said.
“In addition, the defense further misrepresents the Decision on Disclosure of Communications as the argument that the Chamber assumed the Defence’s awareness ‘of the entirety of the transmitted materials’ to the Panel is solely premised on the assertion that the Chamber’s relevant instructions to the Registry would have lacked clarity,” it added.
For these reasons, the chamber said it rejected Duterte’s request. /mcm