Philippines social media users have erroneously claimed the International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor said the country’s arrested former leader Rodrigo Duterte was “innocent” of crimes against humanity charges. Karim Khan was in fact talking about the presumption of innocence under the law, a right afforded to defendants in criminal cases.
“This is it. The ICC itself said Father Digong is innocent,” reads the Tagalog-language caption of a TikTok video on March 15, using Duterte’s popular nickname among his supporters.
The 1:30 clip of ICC chief prosecutor Khan has been viewed more than 113,000 times. It starts with him saying: “As we now start a new stage of proceedings, Mr. Duterte is presumed innocent.”
The video continues with Khan saying Duterte will make an initial appearance before the court and discussing the process of prosecuting the Philippines ex-leader.
Duterte made his first appearance before The Hague-based ICC tribunal on March 13, where he faces crimes against humanity charges over his deadly crackdown on narcotics (archived link).
Other TikTok posts misinterpreting Khan’s quote about the presumption of innocence misled users.
“Thank you Sir and ICC,” read one comment, while another said: “This means our Father Digong can come home.”
But Khan was referring to a legal right afforded to all defendants in criminal trials and the full video shows he was talking about the prosecution process of Duterte’s case.
Read the full story on AFP Fact Check.