FULL SCRIPTof CLOSING
By Atty N Kaufman lifted from More of Davao
𝐅𝐔𝐋𝐋 𝐒𝐂𝐑𝐈𝐏𝐓 𝐎𝐅 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐂𝐋𝐎𝐒𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐓𝐄𝐌𝐄𝐍𝐓 𝐎𝐅 𝐀𝐓𝐓𝐘. 𝐍𝐈𝐂𝐇𝐎𝐋𝐀𝐒 𝐊𝐀𝐔𝐅𝐌𝐀𝐍:
I went to that prison and I sat with him for an hour.
I tried to engage him concerning the evidence and he lost the desire to follow me within less than a minute.
I offered to show him excerpts of the confirmation proceedings, a few minutes of the deputy prosecutor, a few moments of Ms. Massiter and hoping, hoping that it might excite him a bit more, some of my own opening statement. He shook his head firmly. I implored him.
I said, “Sir, look, look at what we are doing for you. We're doing our utmost to get you out of here.”
But once again he politely declined and I asked him why.
I said to him, “Sir, don't you understand? They accuse you of murder. They say that you murdered thousands when you were the mayor and when you were ruling your country.”
And then he repeated the question that he has always asked me for a year.
“How does the prosecution say that I did this?”
“Well, I replied, I thought until Monday that it was because of those speeches of yours, but then your prosecutor told the honorable judges the other day, throw them all out, they're not necessary for the confirmation. He claims that he still has enough evidence to convict you without all the bluster.”
And the former president repeated the question, “But how? I've never murdered anyone. And they talk about thousands?”
And then, I tried to explain to him arcane concepts such as indirect co-perpetration. And then his eyes simply glazed over. And who can blame him?
As I mentioned, it is the only highly technical means whereby the prosecution can artificially connect him to criminal activity not of his own doing.
I then tell him that the people who are incriminating him are self-confessed murderers cooperating with the prosecution, whose names we can't mention in public.
I tell him that in return for their dubious services and their expressions of so-called remorse, as the prosecutor puts it, they will not face trial at the ICC, probably nowhere in the world, and will be rehoused with new identities.
Mr. Duterte, the ex-prosecutor, like me, can't understand the fairness of that.
Relying on not one but a number of vicious criminals to convict him. When he remembers that he is supposed to be presumed innocent.
I tell him the names of those criminal cooperating witnesses because apart from us, he is the only person who is entitled to know.
He tells me that he has not heard of any of them apart from two, who he vaguely recalls from his days as mayor.
Concerning one, his comment is liar and concerning the other, scalawag.
And then exactly in the spirit of the waiver filed with this court, he looked at me solemnly and said,
“Mr. Kaufman, Nick, I have done my duty and I have left my legacy. Go to court and do your job. But I can no longer help you. I no longer remember much at all and I can't comment on people who I do not know and on statistics that mean nothing to me.”
He then concluded and pronounced as follows,
“I was a faithful servant of the people and that is how I wish to be remembered. I have now accepted my fate and I realize that I could die in prison.”
And on that somber note, my team and I realized that there was no point in continuing. So we tried to humor him.
We told him that next month he will be 81, and we reminded him of the many people who visit Duterte Street and Duterte Park, the renamed locality, just outside the ICC detention center as referred to by the many, many pilgrims who have visited the Hague to feel closeness to his presence, even if they cannot witness his actual person with their own eyes.
We reminded him of the mountain of cards and greetings and of the forest of flowers that he received, both at the detention center and at the court's premises on his 80th birthday.
So many cards, all of which were read by his family that we had to provide two sacks to take them back to our office.
So many bouquets of flowers that the prison had to bring a van to take them away.
The flowers that reached the court premises were strategically placed around the building, and although so appealing and desirable and coveted by the staff, were avoided once the staff was told of their origin. So these flowers just rotted in the corridors until the smell forced them to be thrown away.
We showed him some photographs of his family.
We showed him photographs of his youngest daughter, Veronica, Kitty, who writes to him every day, so often that the letters are piling up in his room.
His face starts to light up. We showed him pictures of civic events in the Philippines with Sebastian Baste, and Paolo Pulong.
He laughed and told us what he remembers of their days as young men in Davao.
We showed him pictures of Inday Sara greeting the enthusiastic crowds of people in the Philippines, and then finally his face beamed with pride.
Your honors, it is so easy to choose as a target for prosecution a politician because of the way he presents his policies.
If Rodrigo Duterte is to be faulted for anything, it is for his inappropriate choice of language.
But he murdered no one.
Out of that huge database of evidence on which the prosecution relies, I repeat that there is absolutely nothing to directly link Rodrigo Duterte to the 78 deaths alleged. That is why they rely on a few selective and vociferous individuals in the Duterte administration, calling them co-perpetrators, just so it can artificially superimpose their fantasy common plan theory linking Rodrigo Duterte to the victims.
Your honors, I beg you to be guided by the evidence, which must reach a minimal level of integrity. Be persuaded by your own innate sense of justice and by your own collective years of experience, but most importantly, be guided by coherent evidence and by common sense.
I ask you, I beg you, not to confirm any of the charges.
I ask you to let Rodrigo Duterte return to the Philippines, not to govern, but simply to let him live out the rest of his days in peace in his humble dwelling in Davao.
And with that, your honors, I conclude, and I wish to thank you for your patience and to thank the parties and the participants and most importantly, my team.
#MoreOfDavao #FreeFPRRD #BringHimHome
