A graphic is going around Facebook. It shows a woman in official ICC robes, her name printed in bold:

Judge Joanna Korner. British. International Criminal Court.

Beneath her photo, a statement: "Rodrigo Duterte should not be imprisoned."

Three bullet points follow. The Philippines is no longer an ICC member. The ICC has no jurisdiction. Holding him is unlawful.

The post is being shared. A lot.

So I looked it up.

THE JUDGE IS REAL. THE STATEMENT IS NOT.

Judge Joanna Korner is a real person. She is British. She is an ICC judge.

She has over 45 years of experience in criminal law — as a barrister, a Crown Court judge in England and Wales, and a senior prosecutor at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.

The UK government formally endorsed her candidacy for the ICC in 2020. She was elected on December 23, 2020, and has been serving since March 2021.

She is also, as of April 29, 2026, the presiding judge of ICC Trial Chamber III — the chamber that will hear the crimes against humanity case against Rodrigo Duterte.

The "Justice Philippines" graphic borrowed her name, her photo, and her title to make a fabricated quote look official.

There is no ICC statement. No ruling. No press release. Nothing on the court's official records says what that graphic claims she said.

WHAT THE GRAPHIC ACTUALLY DOES

This falls under a specific category in media literacy called disinformation — false information deliberately created to deceive, usually with a political agenda behind it.

The person who made that graphic knew the quote was fake when they made it.

The "fake news" label gets thrown around so loosely that it's almost meaningless now.

Politicians use it to dismiss legitimate reporting they disagree with.

So calling this "fake news" and leaving it at that doesn't capture what's actually happening here.

This is fabricated political disinformation.

Specifically, it's what researchers call imposter content — when a real person's identity is used to give false information the appearance of credibility.

They used Korner precisely because she's the real presiding judge.

Someone who doesn't do their research would look at the graphic and think: the judge assigned to this case just said Duterte shouldn't be imprisoned. That's the whole point of the design.

THE JURISDICTION ARGUMENT: REAL DEBATE, FABRICATED QUOTE

To be fair about one thing: the claim that "the Philippines is no longer an ICC member and therefore the court has no jurisdiction" — that's a real legal argument.

Duterte's own defense team has filed jurisdictional challenges on exactly those grounds.

But the ICC's position, upheld by the Pre-Trial Chamber and reaffirmed multiple times, is that jurisdiction attaches to crimes committed while the Philippines was still a member state — before March 2019.

Withdrawal doesn't erase what happened before the exit.

The ICC rejected yet another jurisdictional challenge from Duterte's camp as recently as May 2026.

So the underlying legal debate is real.

Duterte's lawyers are actually making that argument in court.

But the graphic doesn't present it as a legal argument — it presents it as a settled declaration by the presiding judge herself.

That framing is the fabrication.

WHY THIS KEEPS WORKING

We've seen this pattern before.

Since Duterte's arrest in March 2025, fake ICC documents, fabricated Supreme Court orders, and false jurisdiction claims have flooded local social media.

These posts are designed to be shared fast, in environments where people aren't going to stop and Google the source.

A clean graphic. An official-looking name. A quote that confirms what supporters already want to believe. Pag-share na. Done.

The terrifying part: Judge Korner was actively running the Duterte case's first status conference just days ago — May 26 and 27, 2026.

She was setting deadlines, responding to defense motions, commenting on Duterte's health. She is doing her job as the presiding judge of this case.

And someone is putting words in her mouth to tell Filipinos the opposite of what is actually happening.