DPA
A Cambodian court has reserved its verdict in the appeal of two men convicted of the 2004 killing of a prominent unionist which was decried as a farce by human rights groups and the unionist's family at the time it was first handed down.
Born Samnang, 27, and Sok Sam Oeun, 39, were appealing their sentence of 20 years in jail each for the shooting murder of Free Trade Union of Cambodia president Chea Vichea in January 2004.
Vichea was gunned down on a busy city street in broad daylight as he bought the daily newspaper. The popular opposition Sam Rainsy Party-aligned champion of garment workers had just emerged from hiding after receiving a series of death threats.
Phnom Penh Municipal Court initially threw out the charges against the two men, but the prosecutor was subsequently fired and that decision was overturned in August 2005 in a hearing bereft of witnesses which human rights groups said failed dismally to link the men to the crime and which was branded a show trial by local and international lobby groups including Amnesty International.
Judge Saly Theara heard evidence all day Friday in the Cambodian Court of Appeal from witnesses including Samnang's wife, mother-in-law and two friends who testified he was 60 kilometers away at the time of the shooting.
No witnesses appeared for Sam Oeun, who looked seriously ill from his years in prison and was unable to stand during the hearing.
However a statement from a newspaper seller who witnessed the attack and later fled the country fearing for her life was tendered to the court, stating that the pair were not the men she witnessed shoot Vichea and that the real gunman had visited her a month after the attack to threaten her into silence.
Lawyer Peung Yok Hiep, representing the deceased Vichea and his family, told the court she wanted the verdicts overturned.
"According to my clients, these men are not the killers. Please release them and go out and find the real guilty parties," she told the court.
Vichea's brother and successor to his union leadership, Chea Mony, attended the hearing in silence. In 2005 he had spoken for Vichea's family when he refused to accept the 5,000 dollars each in compensation awarded to his family by the court from the two convicts, saying the family did not believe they were the killers.
Samnang testified that after his arrest he was tortured in an attempt to extract a confession by disgraced former Phnom Penh police chief Heng Pov and former deputy chief of minor crime Ly Rasy - both of whom are now serving long sentences for murder and other serious offenses.
He said after being tortured, the same police then asked for his cooperation, promising him financial rewards and that they would apply for a pardon from King Norodom Sihamoni which would see him free within a year if he pleaded guilty.
"Police brought me money, girls and food when I was in the prison," he told the court.
Debate between the prosecutor and defence about the lack of any real police investigation or evidence, including a murder weapon, and suggestions that the entire case should be reinvestigated, drew the ire of human rights advocates outside the court.
"The court should have investigated all this before now. It should not delay further. They should think about the feelings of these two men," local human rights group Licadho founder, Kek Galabru, told reporters outside the court.
Judge Theara adjourned the hearing and said he would hand down a verdict on April 12.
Born Samnang, 27, and Sok Sam Oeun, 39, were appealing their sentence of 20 years in jail each for the shooting murder of Free Trade Union of Cambodia president Chea Vichea in January 2004.
Vichea was gunned down on a busy city street in broad daylight as he bought the daily newspaper. The popular opposition Sam Rainsy Party-aligned champion of garment workers had just emerged from hiding after receiving a series of death threats.
Phnom Penh Municipal Court initially threw out the charges against the two men, but the prosecutor was subsequently fired and that decision was overturned in August 2005 in a hearing bereft of witnesses which human rights groups said failed dismally to link the men to the crime and which was branded a show trial by local and international lobby groups including Amnesty International.
Judge Saly Theara heard evidence all day Friday in the Cambodian Court of Appeal from witnesses including Samnang's wife, mother-in-law and two friends who testified he was 60 kilometers away at the time of the shooting.
No witnesses appeared for Sam Oeun, who looked seriously ill from his years in prison and was unable to stand during the hearing.
However a statement from a newspaper seller who witnessed the attack and later fled the country fearing for her life was tendered to the court, stating that the pair were not the men she witnessed shoot Vichea and that the real gunman had visited her a month after the attack to threaten her into silence.
Lawyer Peung Yok Hiep, representing the deceased Vichea and his family, told the court she wanted the verdicts overturned.
"According to my clients, these men are not the killers. Please release them and go out and find the real guilty parties," she told the court.
Vichea's brother and successor to his union leadership, Chea Mony, attended the hearing in silence. In 2005 he had spoken for Vichea's family when he refused to accept the 5,000 dollars each in compensation awarded to his family by the court from the two convicts, saying the family did not believe they were the killers.
Samnang testified that after his arrest he was tortured in an attempt to extract a confession by disgraced former Phnom Penh police chief Heng Pov and former deputy chief of minor crime Ly Rasy - both of whom are now serving long sentences for murder and other serious offenses.
He said after being tortured, the same police then asked for his cooperation, promising him financial rewards and that they would apply for a pardon from King Norodom Sihamoni which would see him free within a year if he pleaded guilty.
"Police brought me money, girls and food when I was in the prison," he told the court.
Debate between the prosecutor and defence about the lack of any real police investigation or evidence, including a murder weapon, and suggestions that the entire case should be reinvestigated, drew the ire of human rights advocates outside the court.
"The court should have investigated all this before now. It should not delay further. They should think about the feelings of these two men," local human rights group Licadho founder, Kek Galabru, told reporters outside the court.
Judge Theara adjourned the hearing and said he would hand down a verdict on April 12.
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