Rodrigo Duterte, the former president of the Philippines, will stand trial for crimes against humanity after judges at the International Criminal Court (ICC) confirmed his charges.
The 81-year-old is accused of the extrajudicial killing of thousands during his deadly "war on drugs" between 2011 and 2019.
Those charges that were "unanimously confirmed" by pre-trial judges, who had "substantial grounds to believe" that Duterte had committed the alleged crimes, the ICC said in a statement on Thursday.
The confirmation of Duterte's trial comes after several appeals by the ex-president to be released from detention, where he has been held for more than a year.
Duterte has refused to recognise the ICC proceedings, arguing that during his presidency in 2019 the Philippines had pulled out of the Rome Statute, the ICC's founding agreement.
