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THE HAGUE: The defense lawyer for Rodrigo Duterte Thursday urged the International Criminal Court to shelve its crimes against humanity case against the former Philippines president, who he said was mentally unfit for trial.
Duterte, 80, was scheduled to appear at the ICC on September 23 to hear charges over his years-long campaign against drug users and dealers that rights groups say killed thousands.
The ICC ruled earlier this week to adjourn that hearing while judges assessed Duterte¡¯s health, but lawyer Nicholas Kaufman urged the case be shelved indefinitely.
Duterte ¡°is not fit to stand trial as a result of cognitive impairment in multiple domains,¡± wrote Kaufman in a legal filing published Thursday on the ICC website.
¡°Mr Duterte¡¯s condition will not improve and, for this reason, the Pre-Trial Chamber must adjourn all legal proceedings in his case indefinitely,¡± he added.
The former leader is suffering from ¡°significant cognitive deficiencies¡± affecting his memory, his day-to-day functioning, and his capacity for complex reasoning, according to Kaufman.
Duterte was arrested in Manila on March 11, flown to the Netherlands that same night and has been held at the ICC¡¯s detention unit at Scheveningen Prison since.
At his initial hearing, he followed by video link, appearing dazed and frail, barely speaking.
He is the first Asian former head of state charged by the ICC. He stands accused of 43 murders as a crime against humanity.
The ICC prosecutor¡¯s application for his arrest said Duterte¡¯s alleged crimes were ¡°part of a widespread and systematic attack directed against the civilian population¡± in the Philippines.
¡°Potentially tens of thousands of killings were perpetrated,¡± the prosecutor alleged of the campaign that targeted mostly poor men, often without proof they were linked to drugs.
Kaufman said his client¡¯s mental faculties had declined to the point where he was unable to understand the accusations against him or defend himself in court.
A lawyer for victims of Duterte¡¯s ¡°war on drugs¡± has voiced anger over the ICC¡¯s postponement of the hearing originally scheduled for September 23.
¡°We expected that Duterte would do this, but the fact that he was able to convince the pre-trial chamber to postpone that indefinitely is scary,¡± Kristina Conti told AFP.

Katmandu: Nepal¡¯s president said Thursday he was seeking an end to the crisis that has engulfed the Himalayan nation since deadly protests this week ousted the prime minister and left parliament in flames.
The army has imposed a curfew in the Himalayan nation of 30 million people, with soldiers patrolling the largely quiet streets for a second day after the worst violence in two decades.
President Ramchandra Paudel appealed to ¡°all parties to be confident that a solution to the problem is being sought, as soon as possible.¡±
Army chief General Ashok Raj Sigdel has launched talks with key figures and ¡°representatives of Gen Z,¡± a military spokesperson said, referring to the loose umbrella title of the youth protest movement.
Demonstrations began on Monday in Katmandu against the government¡¯s short-lived ban on social media and over corruption, with at least 19 people killed in the crackdown.
A day later, protests escalated into an outpouring of rage nationwide, with government offices, a Hilton Hotel and other buildings set on fire.
In the chaos, more than 13,500 prisoners broke out of jails countrywide, leaving security forces scrambling to regain control. Only around 250 have been recaptured, according to Nepal¡¯s security forces and an Indian border official.
¡°Our first demand is the dissolution of parliament,¡± Sudan Gurung, a key figure among the Gen Z protesters, told reporters on Thursday.
¡°My humble request to everyone, including political parties: please don¡¯t send the same old leaders,¡± he said, saying the protesters were not seeking power themselves.
¡°We don¡¯t need positions in government,¡± he said. ¡°We need real reform.¡±
Protests fed into longstanding economic woes in Nepal, where more than a fifth of people aged 15-24 are unemployed, according to the World Bank, with GDP per capita just $1,447.

- ¡®Every effort¡¯ -

KP Sharma Oli, 73, a four-time prime minister, resigned Tuesday. His home was set ablaze the same day and his whereabouts are unknown.
Constitutionally, 80-year-old Paudel should invite the leader of the largest parliamentary party to form a government.
But much of the political old guard has vanished from view.
¡°I am consulting and making every effort to find a way out of the current difficult situation in the country, within the constitutional framework,¡± said Paudel, whose presidential offices were also set on fire.
Former chief justice Sushila Karki is the leading choice for interim leader, a Gen Z protester representative said Thursday, although their backing is not unanimous.
¡°Right now, Sushila Karki¡¯s name is coming up to lead the interim government ¡ª we are now waiting for the president to make a move,¡± said Rakshya Bam, an activist who was among those at the army meeting on Wednesday.
Journalist Pranaya Rana said there were ¡°divisions,¡± but it was ¡°natural in a decentralized movement like this that there are going to be competing interests.¡±
Karki, 73, Nepal¡¯s first woman chief justice, has told AFP that ¡°experts need to come together to figure out the way forward,¡± and that ¡°the parliament still stands.¡±
Katmandu Mayor Balendra Shah, a 35-year-old former engineer and rapper, was also among the names suggested as a potential interim leader.
But Shah said in a post on Facebook that he ¡°fully supports the proposal¡± of Karki.
¡°The job of this interim government is to hold elections, to give a new mandate to the country,¡± he said.