Former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte was taken into custody by the International Criminal Court on Wednesday following his arrest in Manila on murder charges linked to his “war on drugs” in which thousands of purported dealers and users were killed.

The ICC said in a statement Duterte was “surrendered to the custody of the International Criminal Court. He was arrested by the authorities of the Republic of the Philippines...for charges of murder as a crime against humanity”.

The 79-year-old arrived at Rotterdam airport on a chartered plane earlier on Wednesday. He will be brought before an ICC judge in The Hague in the coming days for an initial appearance, the statement said. He was transferred to a detention unit on the Dutch coast.

Duterte, who led the Philippines from 2016 to 2022, will face allegations of crimes against humanity for overseeing death squads in his anti-drugs crackdown. He could become the first Asian former head of state to go on trial there.

The ICC arrest warrant says that as president, Duterte created, funded and armed the death squads that carried out murders of purported drug users and dealers.

Speaking in a video shot during his arrest in Manila on Tuesday, Duterte asked: “What is the basis for my detention? What is the crime committed?”

An official who read Duterte his rights told him that it was on the basis of a warrant from the ICC accusing him of murder, to which Duterte replied: “It must be murders,” indicating it must be plural.

About 20 anti-Duterte protesters gathered earlier outside the ICC in The Hague with banners, including one that said: “We demand justice and accountability, Rodrigo Duterte is a war criminal!”.

A protester held a big cardboard mask depicting Duterte as a vampire.

“This is great news for Filipino people,” anti-Duterte protester Menandro Abanes said of Duterte’s arrest and transfer to the court. “I’m here to show my appreciation to (the) ICC for doing its job to end impunity.”

Another protester, Mary-Grace Labasan, said: “Actually, he is lucky, because he is experiencing the due process of law compared to the victims who were just being shot and killed without any due process.”

A handful of pro-Duterte protesters also gathered at the court building.

“They handed our president to foreigners,” protester Janet Suliman said. “They brought shame to our (country).”

Back home, for families of Philippine drug war victims, Duterte’s arrest has revived hopes for justice.The war on drugs was the signature campaign platform that swept the mercurial Duterte to power in 2016. During his six years in office, 6,200 suspects were killed during anti-drug operations, by the police’s count.

Activists say the real toll was far greater, with many thousands more slum drug users, some of whom were on community “watch lists” after they signed up for treatment, gunned down in mysterious circumstances.

‘BIG MOMENT’ FOR ICC

Lawyers and academics said the arrest and transfer were a big moment for the ICC, which is targeted by U.S. sanctions and does not have any police of its own to arrest people.

“This is an opportunity for the court to show that it can deal with a big case and can have arrests,” said Iva Vukusic, an assistant professor of international history at Utrecht University.

Other notable fugitives are Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is accused of being criminally responsible for acts including murder, persecution and using starvation as a weapon of war in the Gaza conflict, and Russian President Vladimir Putin, accused of the war crime of illegally deporting hundreds of children from Ukraine. Both deny the allegations.

In recent months the ICC prosecutor has also requested arrest warrants for senior Afghan and Myanmar leaders.

HABEUS CORPUS

The former president’s daughter Sara Duterte, the country’s vice president, boarded a morning flight to Amsterdam, her office said, but it did not say what she intended to do there or how long she planned to stay in the Netherlands.

Silvestre Bello, a former labour minister and one of the former president’s lawyers, said a legal team would meet to assess options and seek clarity on where Duterte would be taken and whether they would be granted access to him.

Duterte’s youngest daughter, Veronica, plans to file a habeas corpus request with the Philippine Supreme Court to compel the government to bring him back, Salvador Panelo, his former chief legal counsel, said.

The arrest marks a stunning change of fortunes for the influential Duterte family, which forged a formidable alliance with Marcos to help him win a 2022 election by a huge margin.

But Marcos and his vice president have since had a bitter fallout, culminating in Sara Duterte’s impeachment last month by a lower house led by loyalists of Marcos.

His arrest “means that international justice is not just a Western construct. It’s not just a Western idea. It’s universal,” said Gilbert Andres, a lawyer representing families of victims of drug-related killings.