A senator from the Philippines has taken refuge inside the country’s parliament after the International Criminal Court unsealed an arrest warrant regarding his role in the Philippines’ deadly drug war.
Ronald Dela Rosa was pictured by local media fleeing into the Senate building on Monday, as police sought to detain him.
The warrant, which had been held under seal since November, was spurred by the former police chief’s role in ex-President Rodrigo Duterte’s deadly war on drugs, which prosecutors say killed tens of thousands during his time in office in 2016-2022.
The ICC confirmed on Monday evening that the warrant had been issued confidentially on November 6. It charges Dela Rosa as an “indirect co-perpetrator” in the “crime against humanity of murder”.
The former police chief is accused of responsibility for killings carried out between July 2016 and April 2018.
Philippine senator flees ICC arrest over role in Duterte’s drug war
