British barrister Peter Haynes will be the new face of the defense team for former President Rodrigo Duterte at the International Criminal Court (ICC).
The prominent lawyer, whose name was previously redacted in a filing by lawyer Nicholas Kaufman, will serve as Duterte’s lead counsel during the trial phase of his crimes against humanity case.
The change comes after Kaufman’s one-year contract to represent Duterte ended on March 31, 2026.
Kaufman has represented Duterte before the ICC following the former president’s arrest and subsequent detention at the ICC Detention Center in The Hague.
Ruben Carranza, senior associate at the International Center for Transitional Justice, earlier speculated that Haynes would replace Kaufman.
“Is Peter Haynes the new ICC lawyer of Duterte?” he wrote on Facebook on Monday, May 11.
“I predicted it would be him because it fits a pattern,” Carranza said the next day.
Kaufman said that Haynes will attend the status conference set for May 27, adding that the latter is “ready, willing and able to assume immediate representation” for Duterte.
Who is Haynes?
Haynes is one of the foremost practitioners in international criminal and humanitarian law, having spent most of the last 25 years appearing before various tribunals in The Hague.
The British lawyer is a King’s Counsel of St Philips Chambers in Birmingham and has led cases before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, where he represented General Vinko Pandurević in connection with the Srebrenica massacre, as well as before the ICC and the Special Tribunal for Lebanon.
Haynes also served two terms as president of the International Criminal Court Bar Association beginning in 2019, becoming the first person re-elected to the post.
He was also part of one of the few full acquittals ever secured at the ICC, serving as lead counsel for Jean-Pierre Bemba, the former vice president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, from 2010 to 2018.
Bemba’s 2018 conviction for war crimes and crimes against humanity was overturned by the ICC Appeals Chamber, which ruled that the trial court had misjudged his responsibility as a remote commander over troops deployed abroad and had convicted him for acts outside the original charges.
Bemba was later released from detention after his acquittal.
Haynes likewise represented the victims of the terrorist bombing in Beirut that led to the assassination of Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
The British lawyer has appeared in cases involving genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and international terrorism.
In his home country, he acted for both the prosecution and the defense inter alia in cases of murder, serious fraud, sexual offenses, human trafficking and complex conspiracies.
Haynes also works as an independent consultant on international legal matters, advising governments, heads of state and non-governmental organizations.
— with reports from Philstar.com/Cristina Chi
