On September 29, 21 organizations of lawyers and human rights defenders asked the International Criminal Court (ICC) to impose disciplinary action on Rodrigo Duterte’s lawyer, Nicolas Kaufman, for repeatedly distorting and spreading false information related to Duterte’s case. The groups include Karapatan, the Duterte Panagutin Network, and Rise Up for Life and Rights.

They said Kaufman twisted actual events and statements to mislead the court. One of these was his claim that both the prosecution and the government of the Philippines agreed to the petition for Duterte’s interim release. Both the prosecution and the government of the Philippines denied this.

A few weeks earlier, the ICC released three important documents that support the case against Duterte: the Document Containing the Charges (DCC), a list of 181 pieces of evidence, and a pre-confirmation brief dated July 4.

The DCC contains three counts of crimes against humanity that could have been read before Duterte has the confirmation of his case proceeded on September 23. Although the case filed is incomplete and limited, victims already consider the DCC “an important step towards accountability.”