A busy week at the ICC: Dela Rosa, Smotrich, and El Hishri
A busy week at the ICC: Dela Rosa, Smotrich, and El Hishri
Alberto Fierro Aldudo holds an LL.M. from Maastricht University, where he specialised international law and human rights. LinkedIn · X
Introduction
This week, the International Criminal Court has been in the centre of the news for three different reasons: the arrest warrant against former Chief of the Philippines National Police Ronald Dela Rosa and the attempts to arrest him, the rumours of the application for arrest warrants against 5 Israeli officials, and the confirmation of charges hearing in the El Hishri case.
The arrest warrant against Dela Rosa
On 11 May 2026 in Manila (the Philippines), senator Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa reappeared in the Senate floor after more than 6 months of absence. Dela Rosa was one of the closest allies of the former president of the Philippines Rodrigo Duterte, under whom he served as Chief of the Davao City Police and Chief of the Philippines National Police during the “war on drugs”. Since the arrest of Duterte, many rumours pointed to the possibility of new arrest warrants issued by the ICC regarding the situation in the Philippines, especially after the ICC posted in its public records the Lesser Redacted version of the Document Containing Charges against Duterte on 13 February 2026. In this document and for the first time since the beginning of the case, the names of the 8 co-perpetrators of Duterte were not redacted, being the first in the list Ronald Dela Rosa.
On the morning of 11 May, soon after Dela Rosa entered the Senate, agents from the National Bureau of Investigation tried to serve him with an arrest warrant, and soon after a secret copy of an ICC arrest warrant started to circulate among the Philippine media. Later that day, the Pre-Trial Chamber I of the ICC decided to unseal the arrest warrant against Dela Rosa, which had originally been issued as secret on 6 November 2025 after the Office of the Prosecutor applied for it on 3 November.
Dela Rosa received protection from the president of the Senate and was not arrested that day, and on 15 May he left the Senate. After this, he applied for a temporary restraining order to prevent his arrest and transfer to the International Criminal Court, but on 20 May 2026 the Supreme Court of the Philippines denied the petition, paving the way for the Philippine government to arrest Dela Rosa.
The cooperation between the ICC and the government of the Philippines, that made possible the arrest of Rodrigo Duterte in 2025, will possibly result in new cases before the Court. The OTP has shown in the application for the arrest warrants against Duterte and Dela Rosa, and in the confirmation proceedings against Duterte, that they have evidence to name 8 different individuals as co-perpetrators, including Vicente Danao, Camilo Cascolan, Oscar Albayalde, Christopher Lawrence ‘Bong’ Go, Dante Gierran, Isidro Lapeña, and Vitaliano Aguirre II, all well-known names in the sphere of the Duterte family. In the meantime, the case against Duterte continues its path. After changing his defence team and naming Peter Haynes as counsel and Kate Gibson as associate counsel, the former president prepares to face trial once the Trial Chamber III sets a date for it.
Rumours regarding arrest warrants against Israeli officials
On 17 May 2026, Haaretz announced that diplomatic sources were affirming that the Office of the Prosecutor of the ICC was seeking arrest warrants against Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, Minister of Settlements and National Missions Orit Strook, and two unknown military officials.
The following day, Middle East Eye affirmed that the OTP requested an arrest warrant against Smotrich for the war crimes of unlawful deportation and transfer of population into occupied territories, and the crimes against humanity of displacement and apartheid.
On 3 November 2025, the ICC amended Regulation 23 ter of the Regulations of the Court, forcing the OTP to file applications for arrest warrants as “under seal” or “secret” and therefore preventing public announcements of the application. For that reason, until the Pre-Trial Chamber issues a decision regarding the arrest warrants and decides to unseal them, we are not going to have the confirmation of whether these rumours are true.
Confirmation of charges hearing of El Hishri
On 19 May 2026, the Pre-Trial Chamber I of the ICC started the confirmation of charges hearing in the case of The Prosecutor v. Khaled Mohamed Ali El Hishri.
El Hishri, who is accused of having committed several counts of crimes against humanity and war crimes in the Mitiga Prison near Tripoli, is the first individual to face a confirmation of charges proceeding at the ICC since the opening of the investigation in Libya in 2011.
Some days before the start of the hearing on 6 May, the defence of El Hishri submitted a challenge to the jurisdiction of the Court, questioning if the scope of the UNSC referral of 2011 includes the case of El Hishri, as well as affirming that the art. 12(3) Declaration made by Libya in 2025 was invalid. This move, thah comes after a similar move from the defense of Osama Elmasry that submitted a similar claim on 28 April 2026*, will have to be settled by the Court.
* Version corrected on 22 May 2026 after Iain Edwards, Assistant to counsel in the defense team of El Hishri, stated that there was no coordination between the defense of Elmasry and El Hishri.
Conclusion
Even when most of the times it does not reach the general media, the ICC continues to work. These three developments will bring changes to the Court in the short term. First, the possibility of a new case regarding the Situation in the Philippines is closer now than it has been since the arrest of Duterte in March 2025. Second, new arrest warrants against Israeli officials in the Situation in the State of Palestine would not necessarily mean new proceedings but probably further pressure on the Court from third states and even member states of the Rome Statute. Third, if the charges against El Hishri are confirmed, the Court will have a second trial opening soon in a moment when the courtrooms were starting to get very empty.