FACT CHECK: Duterte still detained in the ICC detention center

Claim: The International Criminal Court (ICC) is releasing detained former president Rodrigo Duterte after Fujiki Shunichi of the International Career Support Association (ICSA) pleaded for his release at the United Nation Human Rights Council (UNHRC) session on March 11.

Rating: FALSE

Why we fact-checked this: The YouTube post containing the claim has over 85,375 views and 6,300  likes as of writing.

The post, dated March 16,  is titled, “CONFIRMED! RELEASED NA? UNITED NATIONS AMERIKA 1CC JUDGE LALABAS nasi PRRD? TINAP0S LAHAT sa PALASY0” 

(Confirmed! United Nations, America, ICC Judge releases PRRD [president Rodrigo Roa Duterte], ended everyone in the palace.)

The video also has a thumbnail that says, “Lalaya na si PRRD sa ICC. Buong bansa niyanig sa balitang ito!”

(PRRD released from the ICC. The whole country was shocked by this news!)

The facts: Duterte is still detained in the ICC detention center in Scheveningen, The Hague, Netherlands. On March 6, an appeals chamber of the ICC junked a request to temporarily free the former president. 

In an earlier decision on October 10, 2025, the ICC’s pre-trial chamber also rejected an earlier request of Duterte for an interim release. In the ICC, a suspect cannot be temporarily freed if the following risks are believed to be present: fleeing from the case, intimidating witnesses, and re-committing the crimes he is accused of. The chamber believes that all three factors are present in Duterte’s case.

ICC and the UNHRC: Fujiki called for Duterte’s interim release at the general debate in UNHRC’s 61st Session. Representatives of Non-Governmental Organizations that are in consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) are allowed to participate in UNHRC sessions as observers and are able to participate in debates. 

Long-time human rights activist and former journalist Carlos Conde, in a blog post on Tuesday, March 17, said “Fujiki is not a human rights researcher.” 

“He is a Japanese nationalist activist and businessman who has spent over a decade at UN sessions working to deny wartime sexual slavery — to erase the testimony of ‘comfort women,’ the survivors of Imperial Japan’s system of military sexual slavery during World War II. Scholars have compared his methods to Holocaust denialism,” Conde said. 

“What Fujiki did — and what the news outlets that amplified him without scrutiny did — is a betrayal of everything that forum is supposed to stand for,” he added. 

Although it has a cooperation agreement with the United Nations, the ICC is an independent international organization and is not a part of the United Nations System, the ICC website said. 

Previous related fact-checks: Rappler has previously debunked several claims about Duterte’s case in the ICC, including claims of his alleged release and return to the Philippines.

• FACT CHECK: ICC’s rejection of Duterte’s appeal for interim release misrepresented as reclusion perpetua sentence
• FACT CHECK: ICC hasn’t declared Duterte ‘not guilty’ in drug war case
• FACT CHECK: Duterte not back in PH; video misuses 2025 news report of his arrest
• FACT CHECK: Duterte still in ICC custody; case under deliberation
• FACT CHECK: ICC judges did not withdraw from Duterte case

 – Lorenz Pasion/Rappler.com

Lorenz Pasion is a Rappler contributor. This fact check was reviewed by a member of Rappler’s research team and a senior editor. 

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