Philippine police arrested former President Rodrigo Duterte after the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued a warrant accusing him of a crime against humanity over his fatal “war on drugs.”
The 79-year-old was taken to police custody shortly after arriving at Manila Airport from Hong Kong, the BBC reported.
He did not apologise for the cruel anti-drug crackdown, seeing thousands of people being killed while he was the president of the Southeast Asian nation from 2016 to 2022 and mayor of Davao before that.
After his arrest, he questioned the basis for the warrant and asked, “Do you (have) a crime I committed?”
Salvador Panello, former presidential spokesman for Duterte, criticised the arrest, calling it “illegal” when the Philippines withdrew from the ICC in 2019.
The ICC previously said it has jurisdiction in the Philippines over alleged crimes committed before the country retreated as a member.