Duterte lawyers seek more medical tests

MANILA, Philippines - Lawyers of former president Rodrigo Duterte are seeking additional medical examinations to fully determine his fitness to stand trial before the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Responding to reports submitted by a medical panel that examined the 81-year-old Duterte, lawyer Peter Haynes said that the assessment was incomplete and that the evidence collected did not support the experts' conclusion.

The panel - composed of experts in forensic psychiatry, geriatric and behavioral neurology as well as neuropsychology - found that Duterte "retains all the capacities necessary to participate meaningfully in the trial," the defense filing showed.

But according to Haynes, the defense "struggles to understand" how the panel made the conclusions when "the answers [Duterte] provided during the interviews - and, even more significantly, the medical records made available to them - reasonably point to a different conclusion."