Friday, 6 March 2009

Ieng Sary Defense To Appeal Site Gag Order

By Chun Sakada, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
05 March 2009

Defense lawyers of jailed Khmer Rouge leader Ieng Sary filed an appeal Thursday against a tribunal order for the removal of documents on a Web site deemed confidential to the trial process.

The defense sent a notice of their appeal to investigating judges Marcel Lemonde and You Bunleang, who ordered the removal of the documents from a Web site on Tuesday.

“This morning we filed a letter to the co-investigating judges, to announce to them that we appeal against the order,” Cambodian defense attorney Ang Udom told VOA Khmer Thursday. “After that we will submit a thesis of the appeal.”

The team has 30 days to prepare the full thesis, from March 3, the date of the order, he said.

Tribunal spokesman Reach Sambath confirmed the appeal had been filed at the Pre-Trial Chamber of the court, but he could not confirm a date the chamber would consider the appeal.

The defense team for Ieng Sary, who is 84 and in poor health, has said the orders to remove three documents from the Web site are not warranted and that any information they’ve posted on their Web site was public.

The judges ordered the removal of three documents: an appeal against the tribunal’s refusal to appoint a psychiatrist to Ieng Sary and requests for information about two international staff members of the court.

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