The legal defense team for former President Rodrigo Duterte has formally urged the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) Trial Chamber III to reject a prosecution request to catalog and access personal items seized during his arrest and subsequent transfer to the tribunal.
In a June 26 submission, the defense argued that the prosecution’s motion was filed far too late, noting that investigators have known about the existence of these materials since March 14, 2025. They claimed that introducing the request at this stage threatens to derail the established judicial timeline, calling the prosecution’s target to finish disclosures by September 30, 2026, highly unrealistic.
Furthermore, the defense dismissed the request as redundant because the Registry has already provided “chain of custody” documents, and frozen monetary assets are already securely held under official court authority.
In a parallel filing submitted on the same day, Duterte’s lawyers pushed back against a separate prosecution demand seeking access to all physical keys currently held by the court, calling the move an unjustified “fishing expedition.”
They warned that granting access could compromise the privacy of third parties, including the former leader’s family members.
The defense explained that investigators failed to connect the items to any alleged offenses:
”The Prosecution advances no evidential basis connecting the keys either to the commission or furtherance of the alleged crimes,” the defense argued…
To avoid further procedural delays ahead of the trial, which is scheduled to begin on November 30, 2026, the defense asked the chamber to enforce a strict June 30, 2026 deadline for any remaining registry-related requests. While willing to permit access to certain redacted files, they drew a firm line at the physical keys.
”For the reasons set out above, the Defence does not oppose the Prosecution’s request to access the [REDACTED] in the custody of the Registry,” the filing stated. “The Defence does oppose, and requests that Trial Chamber III reject, the Prosecution’s request in relation to ‘all keys’ in the Registry’s custody.”