A cell measuring nine square metres, one hour’s exercise outside and a weekly budget of 25 euros for treats: welcome to the new world of former Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte.<\/p>\n
AFP was granted rare access inside the detention centre in The Hague, where Duterte is awaiting trial on crimes against humanity charges over his “war on drugs” that killed thousands.<\/p>\n
The imposing building is a stone’s throw from the International Criminal Court, at which he will stand trial, and about a kilometre from The Hague’s famous dunes, where residents flock to enjoy long sandy beaches.<\/p>\n
But no such pleasures for Duterte, who is permitted one hour of outdoor exercise per day on a tennis court that has seen better days.<\/p>\n
The facility holds not just people awaiting trial at the ICC but also other international courts.<\/p>\n
Ratko Mladic, known as the “Butcher of Bosnia”, is in a different wing, under the authority of the United Nations Detention Unit.<\/p>\n
The ICC currently holds seven detainees — in with Duterte is Libyan prison boss Khaled Mohamed Ali El Hishri and convicted Timbuktu police chief Al Hassan Ag Abdoul Aziz Ag Mohamed Ag Mahmoud.<\/p>\n
It has plenty of room for more. Thirty-two cells in total stand ready to receive people served with ICC arrest warrants, such as Russian President Vladimir Putin and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.<\/p>\n
Cells are around nine metres (30 feet) squared, with a toilet and sink in the corner, a thin plastic mattress on a single bed and a window overlooking the exercise yard.<\/p>\n
Inmates shower in one of three small separate cubicles in a washroom that doubles as a laundry, with a washing and drying machine.<\/p>\n
Prisoners do their own laundry. In a note on the wall, they are implored to clean the filters, “so that the dryer can be used by other gentlemen”.<\/p>\n
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– ‘No machine guns’ –<\/p>\n
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The detainees mingle in the common room, which has games, puzzles, books, a tank of calming tropical fish and cooking facilities for a taste of home.<\/p>\n
On a table lays a discarded score-sheet. Ali 3, Mar 3: perhaps a hotly contested game of dominoes between two war crimes suspects?<\/p>\n
A pan of what appeared to be leftover curry stood congealing on the hob. Prisoners are allowed to cook their own food, in addition to their a la carte breakfast and two hot meals per day.<\/p>\n
People grumble about the food, like in every detention centre, said prison director Marc Dubuisson.<\/p>\n
“But when people are complaining about food, it’s good because they are not complaining about more serious matters,” like ill-treatment, he said.<\/p>\n
Nevertheless, food is a “key topic” in the detention centre, and officials try to take national tastes into account when feeding the inmates, asking them what they would like to eat, said Dubuisson.<\/p>\n
In addition, they have 25 euros ($29) per week to spend on a pre-approved list of treats and luxuries. This could be food or special toiletries, for example.<\/p>\n
They can do voluntary jobs such as cleaning to earn a few extra euros, but Dubuisson stressed this was a detention centre, not a place where people are serving a sentence.<\/p>\n
“They are free to do what they like” within strict house rules, said the 63-year-old Belgian.<\/p>\n
The custody officers try to forge a good relationship with the prisoners. “There are no machine guns in this building,” he said.<\/p>\n
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– ‘Sometimes tensions’ –<\/p>\n
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They are however locked up from 8:30 pm to around 7:00 am, as well as from noon to 1:00 pm and 5:00 pm to 6:00 pm.<\/p>\n
Outside these hours, there is a routine of activities.<\/p>\n
Staff encourage physical exercise. There is a well-equipped gym and indoor sports hall with badminton, basketball and boxing punchbags.<\/p>\n
A sports trainer is available daily, plus various classes. Inmates can sign up for yoga, language lessons or art lessons.<\/p>\n
An extensive library of books and DVD in several languages is at the prisoners’ disposal. They have a secure computer — not connected to the internet — to prepare their cases.<\/p>\n
There is a medical wing, with three doctors available, although emergencies require an external hospital visit.<\/p>\n
Family visits take place in a separate room, complete with toys for children. Conjugal visits are also possible in a different cell with a pull-down bed just big enough for two.<\/p>\n
Dubuisson said the inmates were generally relatively sociable with each other, sharing news of family members.<\/p>\n
“There is sometimes tension like in all detention centres but never to the point we were forced to call the police,” he said.<\/p>\n
AFP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A cell measuring nine square metres, one hour’s exercise outside and a weekly budget of 25 euros for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12091,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[2174,87,2631,75,2630,2636,2633,2632,2634,205,2635,366,2629,42,2628,612],"class_list":{"0":"post-12090","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-the-hague","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-china","10":"tag-english-daily","11":"tag-finance","12":"tag-free-newspaper","13":"tag-headlines","14":"tag-hong-kong-media","15":"tag-hong-kong-news","16":"tag-hong-kong-news-media","17":"tag-latest-news","18":"tag-sing-tao","19":"tag-sports","20":"tag-standard","21":"tag-the-hague","22":"tag-the-standard","23":"tag-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12090","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12090"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12090\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12091"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}