Thursday, 24 April 2008

Khmer Rouge genocide trial lost in translation

edmontonsun.com
By AP

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia -- A language spat has disrupted the pretrial hearing of a former Khmer Rouge leader facing genocide charges.

Tribunal judges in Phnom Penh abruptly adjourned the hearing after the lawyer for 76-year-old Khieu Samphan berated the court for failing to translate thousands of pages of documents into French.

Defence lawyer Jacques Verges complained that although French is an official language at the tribunal, not one page of the case file against his client has been translated.

Verges says he told yesterday's closed-door session that failure to translate the case file renders the proceedings "invalid." The lawyer then stormed out of the hearing after the judges had asked his client to find a new lawyer.

Samphan has been detained by the tribunal since Nov. 19 and is one of five former senior Khmer Rouge leaders in custody.

Samphan is charged with crimes against humanity and war crimes allegedly committed during the Khmer Rouge's 1975-79 rule in which an estimated 1.7 million people died from starvation, disease, overwork and execution. Samphan has denied responsibility for any atrocities.

After yesterday's disruption, the judges said they would issue a warning to Verges for his courtroom conduct.

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