Judges of the International Criminal Court (ICC) have granted prosecutors’ request to freeze the money seized from former president Rodrigo Duterte following his arrest and transfer to The Hague in March 2025, according to court filings made public on Friday.
The decision by ICC Trial Chamber III allows prosecutors to preserve the funds while proceedings on Duterte’s crimes against humanity case continue. The amount of money seized during his arrest has not been disclosed.
Duterte’s defense had opposed the request, arguing that freezing the funds was unnecessary because the money was already under the custody of the ICC Registry.
“The requested order will have no practical impact upon the existing state of affairs,” the defense said in an earlier filing.
Separate court documents also showed that prosecutors are seeking access to other items confiscated from Duterte at the time of his arrest.
While the defense said it does not object to prosecutors examining some of the seized items, it urged the chamber to deny access to keys currently held by the ICC Registry, arguing that prosecutors failed to establish their relevance to the investigation.
“The request is, in substance, a fishing expedition. The prosecution advances no evidential basis connecting the keys either to the commission or furtherance of the alleged crimes or to any assets that may be relevant to the investigation,” defense counsel Peter Haynes said in a June 16 filing.
“The basis of such a request must exist before the investigation is undertaken, not emerge as a result thereof. The prosecution cannot be permitted to examine the keys in order to articulate, post facto, the evidential foundation required to justify that examination in the first place,” the filing added.
For the remaining seized items, the defense asked the court to require prosecutors to protect personal information belonging to Duterte and his family that is unrelated to the case.
“Such information should also be destroyed or permanently deleted at the earliest possible opportunity,” the defense said.
Duterte is facing charges of crimes against humanity before the ICC over alleged killings linked to his administration’s anti-illegal drugs campaign. His trial is scheduled to begin on Nov. 30, following a series of status conferences and pretrial proceedings.
