Easy Bourse
Thursday December 4th, 2008
PHNOM PENH (AFP)--Lawyers Thursday demanded the release of former Khmer Rouge head of state Khieu Samphan by Cambodia's U.N.-backed genocide tribunal because his case file hasn't been translated into French.
Khieu Samphan, 77, appeared before the court and listened carefully to arguments between his defense team, which includes famed French lawyer Jacques Verges and Cambodian lawyer Sa Sovan, and prosecutors.
Khieu Samphan's lawyers argued that in the absence of the translation of the documents into French, one of the court's three official languages, their client wouldn't have a fair trial.
"The charged person has suffered multiple violations of his rights such that it is no longer possible to uphold his right to a fair trial, and he should be released immediately and unconditionally," his lawyers said in the court document read by a judge.
But prosecutors argued that the appeal was inadmissible, because the court's governing laws don't provide for appeals relating to the issue of translation.
Khieu Samphan was detained by the court in November last year on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity under the Khmer Rouge's brutal 1975-1979 regime.
Khieu Samphan went before the court for the first time in April to appeal against his pre-trial detention.
But the judges adjourned the hearing and warned Verges over his behavior after he said he was unable to act for his client, because court documents hadn't been translated.
The controversial Verges, who has defended some of the world's most infamous figures, including Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie and Venezuelan terrorist "Carlos the Jackal," told reporters at that time he was "indignant" to discover 16,000 pages of court documents hadn't been translated into French.
A fierce anti-colonialist, Verges, who was born in Thailand, reportedly befriended Khieu Samphan and other future Khmer Rouge leaders while at university in Paris in the 1950s.
Khieu Samphan is one of five Khmer Rouge leaders who have been detained by the court for their alleged roles in the regime.
Up to two million people are believed to have been executed or died of starvation and overwork as the communist regime emptied Cambodia's cities, exiling millions to vast collective farms in a bid to forge an agrarian utopia.
Cambodia's genocide tribunal convened in 2006 after almost a decade of haggling between the government and the U.N.
Thursday December 4th, 2008
PHNOM PENH (AFP)--Lawyers Thursday demanded the release of former Khmer Rouge head of state Khieu Samphan by Cambodia's U.N.-backed genocide tribunal because his case file hasn't been translated into French.
Khieu Samphan, 77, appeared before the court and listened carefully to arguments between his defense team, which includes famed French lawyer Jacques Verges and Cambodian lawyer Sa Sovan, and prosecutors.
Khieu Samphan's lawyers argued that in the absence of the translation of the documents into French, one of the court's three official languages, their client wouldn't have a fair trial.
"The charged person has suffered multiple violations of his rights such that it is no longer possible to uphold his right to a fair trial, and he should be released immediately and unconditionally," his lawyers said in the court document read by a judge.
But prosecutors argued that the appeal was inadmissible, because the court's governing laws don't provide for appeals relating to the issue of translation.
Khieu Samphan was detained by the court in November last year on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity under the Khmer Rouge's brutal 1975-1979 regime.
Khieu Samphan went before the court for the first time in April to appeal against his pre-trial detention.
But the judges adjourned the hearing and warned Verges over his behavior after he said he was unable to act for his client, because court documents hadn't been translated.
The controversial Verges, who has defended some of the world's most infamous figures, including Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie and Venezuelan terrorist "Carlos the Jackal," told reporters at that time he was "indignant" to discover 16,000 pages of court documents hadn't been translated into French.
A fierce anti-colonialist, Verges, who was born in Thailand, reportedly befriended Khieu Samphan and other future Khmer Rouge leaders while at university in Paris in the 1950s.
Khieu Samphan is one of five Khmer Rouge leaders who have been detained by the court for their alleged roles in the regime.
Up to two million people are believed to have been executed or died of starvation and overwork as the communist regime emptied Cambodia's cities, exiling millions to vast collective farms in a bid to forge an agrarian utopia.
Cambodia's genocide tribunal convened in 2006 after almost a decade of haggling between the government and the U.N.
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