Former Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte personally drew up "death lists" and boasted about murders committed during his "war on drugs", an International Criminal Court prosecutor alleged Tuesday

The drug war in the Philippines under former president Rodrigo R. Duterte was “widespread and systematic,” prosecutors alleged Tuesday before the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, the Netherlands.

Judges at the UN-backed International Criminal Court (ICC) on Monday opened a confirmation of charges hearing for former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, to determine whether there is sufficient evidence to send him to trial on alleged crimes against humanity linked to killings during the country’s so-called “war on drugs”.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) on Monday is to open preliminary proceedings against former Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte nearly a year after his arrest on dozens of murder charges.

The International Criminal Court has started pretrial hearings on former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, who is facing three counts of crimes against humanity for deadly anti-drugs crackdowns he oversaw while in office.

The protests are a sign of the Philippine ex-leader’s ongoing influence, even as he faces a possible trial for the deaths of thousands during his war on drugs.