Former Philippine president Rodrigo Roa Duterte, presently detained since May 12, 2025, at the International Criminal Court’s detention center in the Hague, The Netherlands, and charged with crimes against humanity, has suffered another setback at the second status conference held last June 23, 2026.

Presiding Judge Joanna Korner issued a lengthy and stern warning to the counsel of the parties in the case to refrain from making public statements to the media following previous inappropriate comments made by former defense lead counsel Nicholas Kaufman criticizing the courts “illegal decisions”. 

Korner stressed that there is no reason for counsel to make comments related to the ongoing proceedings outside the courtroom, which she described as the only appropriate forum for raising legal matters.“Trials are not conducted by the court of public opinion, but by this court during the course of the proceedings.”

Korner, a British Judge, decried that Kaufman’s statements attracted public attention and controversy, and worse, fueled “suppliers of what is undoubtedly and obviously fake news.”

This warning is not the first time. Korner pointed out that as early as October last year, the Pre-Trial Chamber I (PTC-I) had already warned Kaufman of his legal duty to be respectful and courteous to the court, but the warning appeared to have gone unheeded.

Kaufman earlier had been very vocal in criticizing the court’s proceedings up to April 22 this year. In a news interview, he accused the court of facing an existential crisis, saying the court was holding a high-profile figure like Duterte as a “big catch” to defend against sanctions from the United States.

On April 23, the  PTC-I confirmed all three charges against Duterte: 1) murders in Davao City with the Davao Death Squad, 2) murders of high-value targets during his presidency and 3) murders and attempted murders in barangay operations. The ICC also denied Kaufman’s petition for the ICC to reverse the PTC-I’s January 26’s decision that found his client fit to stand trial. Kaufman resigned as lead counsel shortly thereafter. Peter Haynes, a British lawyer, replaced Kaufman.

Duterte appeared at the first hearing of the PTC-1 May 14, 2025, two days after his arrest. However, he has not appeared in person in all the subsequent hearings. He is now mandated to appear in the courtroom during the full trial scheduled on November, 2026, in accordance with the ICC rules.

In another Duterte setback, the ICC ordered the freezing of money seized from Duterte during his 2025 arrest. The prosecution also seeks access to other seized items (including keys), though the defense calls this a “fishing expedition.”