Duch (center), the butcher-in-chief in S-21.ITV (UK)
A lawyer for one of Pol Pot's surviving Khmer Rouge henchmen has complained his client cannot get a fair trial because nearly all the Cambodian judges on the tribunal lost relatives in the genocide.
Kar Savuth, lawyer for the notorious prison commander Duch, said he would boycott the trials of surviving Khmer Rouge leaders accused of responsibility for deaths of 1.7 million people.
"How do you expect Cambodian judges, whose relatives died under the Khmer Rouge, to pass fair judgment on my client?," he said.
"Of course they will give my client severe punishment so I will boycott the trial."
Almost every Cambodian family lost relatives under the 1975-79 Khmer Rouge regime and none of its top leaders, some of whom are alive and living quietly in Cambodia, has faced trial.
Pol Pot, or Brother Number One, died in 1998 in his jungle hideout nearly a decade after a Vietnamese invasion ousted the regime.
Brother Number Two Nuon Chea, former head of state Khieu Samphan and former Foreign Minister Ieng Sary are living in the northwest near the Thai border.
On Monday, 17 Cambodian and ten foreign legal experts were appointed to the tribunal and they promised to be impartial and ignore any pressures.
Tribunal spokesman Reach Sambath said the Cambodian judges "will use the law to judge the Khmer Rouge, not their emotions."
No firm date has been set but the trials could begin early next year after prosecutors assemble their cases.
Only two top cadres are in custody accused of war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity.
Duch, 64, ran the Tuol Sleng interrogation centre where few prisoners survived after the Khmer Rouge emptied Phnom Penh and other cities on taking power after a civil war.
The other detained cadre is 82-year-old Ta Mok, the one-legged Khmer Rouge military chief who has said he wants a swift trial.
Ta Mok's lawyer, Benson Samay, said he was not worried about potential bias against his client.
"I think we are fine because we have foreign judges involved," he said, adding he was more concerned about getting the trials underway.
"Don't wait for the Khmer Rouge to die before they get the chance to tell the court what happened," he said.
Kar Savuth, lawyer for the notorious prison commander Duch, said he would boycott the trials of surviving Khmer Rouge leaders accused of responsibility for deaths of 1.7 million people.
"How do you expect Cambodian judges, whose relatives died under the Khmer Rouge, to pass fair judgment on my client?," he said.
"Of course they will give my client severe punishment so I will boycott the trial."
Almost every Cambodian family lost relatives under the 1975-79 Khmer Rouge regime and none of its top leaders, some of whom are alive and living quietly in Cambodia, has faced trial.
Pol Pot, or Brother Number One, died in 1998 in his jungle hideout nearly a decade after a Vietnamese invasion ousted the regime.
Brother Number Two Nuon Chea, former head of state Khieu Samphan and former Foreign Minister Ieng Sary are living in the northwest near the Thai border.
On Monday, 17 Cambodian and ten foreign legal experts were appointed to the tribunal and they promised to be impartial and ignore any pressures.
Tribunal spokesman Reach Sambath said the Cambodian judges "will use the law to judge the Khmer Rouge, not their emotions."
No firm date has been set but the trials could begin early next year after prosecutors assemble their cases.
Only two top cadres are in custody accused of war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity.
Duch, 64, ran the Tuol Sleng interrogation centre where few prisoners survived after the Khmer Rouge emptied Phnom Penh and other cities on taking power after a civil war.
The other detained cadre is 82-year-old Ta Mok, the one-legged Khmer Rouge military chief who has said he wants a swift trial.
Ta Mok's lawyer, Benson Samay, said he was not worried about potential bias against his client.
"I think we are fine because we have foreign judges involved," he said, adding he was more concerned about getting the trials underway.
"Don't wait for the Khmer Rouge to die before they get the chance to tell the court what happened," he said.
3 comments:
Kar Savuth has raised an important of legal arguments of "unfair" and too "prejudicial", and HE IS RIGHT!
KI-Media - if you are truly believe and stand by your statement (title) below:
. . . [Comrade Duch did not allow his victims to say that his killings were 'unfair', did he?]
NO ONE COULD HAVE AGREEED WITH YOU MORE. HOWEVER, IF YOU REALLY COME TO THINK ABOUT THIS TRIBUNAL - THIS TRIAL HAS BEEN POLITICAL-MOTIVATED AND MANIPULATION SINCE 1979 WHEN THEY INVADED CAMBODIA.
AND YOU TOO, KI-MEDIA, (STANDING BY YOUR STATEMENT) HAVE BEEN FRAMED BY THE HANOI GOVERNMENT AND THEIR PUPPET GOVERNMENT TO THINK THE WAY "THEY" WOULD WANT EVERY KHMER TO THINK - TO CONTINUE POINTING FINGER AT KHMER.
SO WHAT IF TA MOK, KAING GUEK EAV,ETC., KILLED MY BROTHERS SISTERS, AND MY CAMBODIAN PEOPLE THE WHOLE NOKOR, THAT DID NOT JUSTIFY THAT MOTHER FUCKER THE RIGHT TO CARPET BOMBING AND INVADED OUR BELOVED COUNTRY.
WE KHMER WOULD LIKE TO HAVE INTERNATINAL JUDICIAL STANDARD BUT
"THEY" DID NOT THINK IT IS A GOOD STANDARD FOR "THEM".
WE HAD DIGGED A HOLE AND BURRIED OURSELVES SO DEEP AND FOR SO LONG -AND WE THOUGHT THAT THIS TRIBUNAL IS OUR LAST HOPE FOR A GLIMPSE OF "JUSTICE". WHETHER THE "JUSTICE" THAT KHMER IS HOPING TO GET OR NOT, THIS TRIBUNAL IS ONLY COVER THE PERIOD FROM 1975-1979. HOW ABOUT THE 60'S WHEN THE VIET CONG OCCUPIED OUR TERRITORIS AND VIOLATED OUR BORDERS, HOW ABOUT THE INVASION IN THE 70'S BY U.S. AND SOUTH VIETNAMESE AND KILLED NEARLY 1 MILLION INNOCENT CAMBODIAN PEOPLE AND CAUSING FLOODED OF REFUGEES, HOW ABOUT THE INVASION IN DECEMBER 1978, HOW ABOUT K5 PLAN, HOW ABOUT THE 2005 BORDER TREATIES, AND HOW ABOUT AH THAI KILLED THOUSANDS OF KHMER REFUGEES, ETC.
BUT LET'S MAKE NO MISTAKE AND FALL INTO THE TRAP AGAIN AND AGAIN - THIS TRIBUNAL WHETHER "JUSTICE" RENDERS OR NOT, IT IS ABOUT "THEM" FROM THE BEGINING.
SO KUON KHMER - WHATEVER YOUR DREAM MAY BE TRY TO MAKE IT REALTY - HOPE IS GOOD FOR YOU AND GOOD FOR THE COUNTRY!
well. well ..when he killed the poor khmers ..did he ask the for the fair trali first or what?. he is very lucky that he've til now..
so let just pray for the evil come to get him and those who had the bleed stains in their hands...eeyore
He complains that it cannot be fair because "nearly all the Cambodian judges on the tribunal lost relatives in the genocide." So he is not supposed to be tried precisely because the Khmer Rouge managed to kill so many people? The fact that no family was left untouched by the horro of what they did mens they should be exempt from judgement? I'm sensing a small logic flaw here.
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