Former Filipino leader Rodrigo Duterte appears in front of the International Criminal Court in the Hague

The former President of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, appeared on Friday, day after his arrest in Manila in Manila in Manila, because of murder, which were associated with the fatal “war against drugs”, before judges in front of the International Criminal Court in the Hague, which he took over during the term.

The 79-year-old, who arrived in the Netherlands on Wednesday, after he was arrested in Manila for crimes against humanity, sounded when he spoke about a mile from the internment management center, where he was held.

For families of victims of drug progress, Mr. Duterte's appearance in court was a long-awaited sign of hope.

“This is the first step to achieve justice,” said lawyer Gilbert Andres, who represents these families.

But Mr. Duterte's many vocal supporters say that the arrest was illegal. His lawyer Salvador Medialdea used the hearing to decrypt his arrest in Manila as a “pure and simple kidnapping”. He said that Mr. Duterte was “refused to access the legal recourse in the country of his citizenship, and all of this in the nature of the political score settling”.

The presiding judge Iulia Antoanella Motoc presented a hearing date before September 23 to determine whether the public prosecutor's evidence is strong enough to put the case in court. If a legal proceedings take place, it could take years, and if Mr. Duterte is convicted, he faces a maximum prison sentence.

The estimates of the number of fatalities during the presidency of Mr. Duterte vary from those registered by the national police more than 6,000 to 30,000, as reported by human rights groups.

The ICC judge said that Mr. Duterte was allowed to participate in his first hearing of video clink because of the long flight of Manila.

Mr. Duterte, who wore a jacket and tie, heard the hearing through headphones, often with your eyes closed. He spoke in English to confirm his name and date and place of birth. He didn't have to enter a plea. The hearing, which started about half an hour late, took about 30 minutes.

Mr. Medialdea said that Mr. Duterte had been observed in the hospital in the hospital due to health problems.

The judge, who spoke Mr. Duterte, said, “The court was of the opinion that they were mentally aware and fit.”

Mr. Duterte was arrested on Tuesday in the middle of chaotic scenes in the Filipino capital after returning from a visit to Hong Kong. He was quickly created a charter jet and flown to the Netherlands.

His daughter Sara Duterte, who is Vice President of the Philippines, visited him on Friday in the court's internment camp and met him outside the court. Ms. Duterte is a political rival of the current president.

She said her father was “in a good mood” and was “well -kept” and added that his only complaint about the conditions under which he was kept was that he missed Filipino food.

“There will be a day of billing for everyone,” she said.

In the meantime, activists marched in Manila to demand justice for the thousands of suspects who were killed in Mr. Duterte's brutal approach. Families of the killings looked at the ICC procedure on screens across the country, some of which held their dead members of their dead when they listened to the charges against Mr. Duterte in a courtroom on the other side of the world.

The public prosecutor accuses Mr. Duterte to participate as a “indirect co-parpetrator” in several murders that correspond to a crime against humanity because he was supposed to be mayor of the southern city of Davao from November 2011 to March 2019, and later as President of the Filipines, which murders had intended.

According to the public prosecutor's office, Mr. Dutert, as the mayor of Davao, granted the police and other “hitmen”, which formed the so-called Davao death groups or DDS.

Human rights groups and families of the victims welcomed the arrest of Mr. Duterte as a historical triumph on the impunity of the state, while the supporters of the former president have distributed what they describe as the handover of a political rival by the government to a court whose jurisdiction they contest.

“We are happy and we feel relieved,” said 55-year-old Melinda Abion Lafuente, mother of 22-year-old Angelo Lafuente, who was tortured and killed in 2016.

According to Mr. Duterte's legal team, the administration of the current President Ferdinand Marcos JR would not have allowed the global court to take custody of the former leader, since the Philippines are no longer a party for the ICC.

Mr. Medialdea said that “two restless units have made an unlikely alliance. An incumbent president who wants to neutralize and suffocate my client's legacy and daughter “and” a restless legal institute that is subject to delegitimation “.

The judges, who approved the arrest warrant of Mr. Duterte, said the court was responsible because the crimes prescribed in the arrest warrant were committed before Mr. Dutertte retired from the court in 2019.

Reuters and Associated Press contributed to this report