Prosecutors say Duch should remain behind bars in part for his own safety [AFP] WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 2007
Al Jazeera
Prosecutors in Cambodia have said the former head of a notorious Khmer Rouge interrogation centre could try to flee the country if he is released on bail.
Lawyers on Wednesday argued that Kaing Guek Eav, also known as Duch, was a potential "flight risk" if the UN-backed tribunal upholds his appeal against his continued detention.
Duch has been held without trial for more than eight years – a situation his lawyers say is a violation of human rights.
His case is the first heard before a UN-backed tribunal for former Khmer Rouge members and is being seen as a key test of the court's credibility.
Presenting their case for denying bail on Wednesday, prosecutors argued Duch's release would pose a threat to public order in Cambodia, saying that he should remain behind bars for his own safety.
If Duch were released he could be harmed both by "accomplices wishing to silence him and by the relatives of victims seeking revenge", Robert Petit, a prosecutor from Canada, told the court.
He added that Duch could seek to leave the country if he was set free in order to escape justice.
Duch's lawyers say their client has promised to co-operate fully with the tribunal.
Duch was arrested in 1999 and charged last year by the tribunal with crimes against humanity.
During the Khmer Rouge's four years in power he ran its secret police as well as the notorious S-21 torture and interrogation centre.
Some 17,000 people are thought to have passed through the centre, with only a handful surviving.
Wednesday marked the second day of the hearing, with media, Khmer Rouge survivors and relatives of their victims again crowding the tribunal building on the outskirts of Phnom Penh.
Duch is one of five former senior Khmer Rouge leaders currently in detention awaiting trial before the tribunal.
Among the five he is the lowest ranking member of the former regime, but his role in charge of the S-21 interrogation centre, housed in a former Phnom Penh high school, has made him one of the most notorious.
He has insisted he was simply following orders from the top to save his own life.
"I was under other people's command, and I would have died if I disobeyed it," he told a government interrogator after his arrest.
The first formal trials for former Khmer Rouge officials and leaders are expected to get under way early next year.
Lawyers on Wednesday argued that Kaing Guek Eav, also known as Duch, was a potential "flight risk" if the UN-backed tribunal upholds his appeal against his continued detention.
Duch has been held without trial for more than eight years – a situation his lawyers say is a violation of human rights.
His case is the first heard before a UN-backed tribunal for former Khmer Rouge members and is being seen as a key test of the court's credibility.
Presenting their case for denying bail on Wednesday, prosecutors argued Duch's release would pose a threat to public order in Cambodia, saying that he should remain behind bars for his own safety.
If Duch were released he could be harmed both by "accomplices wishing to silence him and by the relatives of victims seeking revenge", Robert Petit, a prosecutor from Canada, told the court.
He added that Duch could seek to leave the country if he was set free in order to escape justice.
Duch's lawyers say their client has promised to co-operate fully with the tribunal.
Duch was arrested in 1999 and charged last year by the tribunal with crimes against humanity.
During the Khmer Rouge's four years in power he ran its secret police as well as the notorious S-21 torture and interrogation centre.
Some 17,000 people are thought to have passed through the centre, with only a handful surviving.
Wednesday marked the second day of the hearing, with media, Khmer Rouge survivors and relatives of their victims again crowding the tribunal building on the outskirts of Phnom Penh.
Duch is one of five former senior Khmer Rouge leaders currently in detention awaiting trial before the tribunal.
Among the five he is the lowest ranking member of the former regime, but his role in charge of the S-21 interrogation centre, housed in a former Phnom Penh high school, has made him one of the most notorious.
He has insisted he was simply following orders from the top to save his own life.
"I was under other people's command, and I would have died if I disobeyed it," he told a government interrogator after his arrest.
The first formal trials for former Khmer Rouge officials and leaders are expected to get under way early next year.
6 comments:
How many Khmer people remembered the civil war during the 1980! I guess not many. The reason I brought this up because of the intensive fighting between two groups of Khmer Rouge! One Khmer Rouge is led by Pol Pot which is pro-China and the other Khmer Rouge led by Hun Sen which is pro-Vietcong backed by Soviet Union!
May I remind you that both of the Khmer Rouge factions took part in chasing Cambodian people out of town and cities and start the killing field! Since 1975 both of the Khmer Rouge factions had done a lot of killing for 4 years!
All Khmer Rouge must stand trial and I don't care which faction and it is time to get to the bottom!
Nope, the trial are for only Khmer Rouge that abused people, not for the Khmer Rouge that liberated people from abuses.
Is there such thing as good or bad Khmer Rouge? All Khmer Rouge kill Cambodian people and you know that!
Bamboo Wall = K-5
Khmer rouge=china communist+vietnam communist=Ho+Mao
AU NOM DE LA LOI OU FACE A LA MORT
...................................
KHMERS NEED PEACE INDEPENDENCE AND REAL JUSTICE!
CAMBODIA BELONG TO KHMER;UN HURRY UP!SIHANOUK HE IS STILL ALIVE!
..................................
Jacques Chirac mis en examen pour détournement de fonds
Jacques Chirac a été mis en examen mercredi pour détournement de fonds, selon son avocat Me Jean Veil, dans le cadre de l'affaire des chargés de mission de la Ville de Paris.
Jacques Chirac le 4 septembre 2007 à Paris.
AFP
PARIS, 21 novembre (Reuters) - Jacques Chirac était entendu mercredi matin pour la deuxième fois depuis son départ de l'Elysée par un juge, cette fois dans l'affaire du recrutement des chargés de missions de la ville de Paris, qu'il dit avoir "souhaité ou autorisé", dans une tribune publiée par Le Monde daté de jeudi.
L'ancien chef de l'Etat est arrivé à 08H30 dans le cabinet de la juge Xavière Simeoni, a-t-on appris de source judiciaire, confirmant une information du site bakchich.info et du Monde. Le statut de l'audition n'a pas été précisé par le parquet de Paris.
M. Chirac est arrivé au pôle financier du palais de justice accompagné de deux avocats, dont Me Jean Veil, selon une source proche du dossier. Procéduralement, la présence d'avocats à l'audition signifie qu'il n'est pas entendu comme simple témoin, mais sous le statut de témoin assisté ou de mis en examen.
Depuis qu'il a quitté l'Elysée et est redevenu un justiciable ordinaire, c'est la deuxième fois en quelques mois que M. Chirac est entendu par un juge. Il a déjà été interrogé comme témoin assisté le 19 juillet à son bureau par le juge Alain Philibeaux dans l'affaire des emplois fictifs au profit du RPR.
Dans celle des chargés de mission, certains emplois rémunérés par la mairie de Paris étaient totalement fictifs, aux contours très imprécis ou sans rapport avec la mairie, selon les enquêteurs. Parmi les bénéficiaires présumés de ces emplois se trouve un ancien préfet, soupçonné d'avoir bénéficié d'un chauffeur payé par le cabinet du maire de Paris. Selon une source proche du dossier, il s'agit du seul contrat signé de la main de M. Chirac, lorsqu'il dirigeait la capitale.
Dans une tribune publiée dans Le Monde daté de jeudi, M. Chirac écrit avoir "souhaité ou autorisé", lorsqu'il était maire, les recrutements de chargés de mission car ils étaient "légitimes autant que nécessaires". Il ajoute qu'ils ont été autorisés par le conseil municipal de Paris. Il assure en outre que "jamais les moyens de la Ville de Paris n'ont été mis au service d'autres ambitions que d'agir pour les Parisiennes et Parisiens".
Dans ce dossier, vingt personnes sont soupçonnées d'avoir attribué des emplois de complaisance ou d'en avoir bénéficié au cours des années 1980 et 1990, du temps où Jacques Chirac (1977-1995) et Jean Tiberi (1995-2001) étaient maires de Paris.
Parmi eux, cinq ex-directeurs de cabinet de la mairie sont déjà mis en examen, notamment pour "détournement de fonds publics": Robert Pandraud (1983-1986), Daniel Naftalski (1986-1989), Michel Roussin (1989-1993), Rémy Chardon (1993-1995) et Bernard Bled (1995-1998). Cette affaire a également valu à Alain Juppé, ancien adjoint aux finances de la ville, d'être entendu comme témoin le 15 mai par les policiers à Nanterre.
Dans le cadre de ce dossier, la police financière a également été chargée d'une enquête sur Claude Chirac, la fille de M. Chirac, conseillère à la mairie de Paris de 1989 à 1993 et salariée d'une société privée.
L'affaire trouve son origine dans la plainte d'un contribuable parisien en 1998. En janvier 1999, une information judiciaire était ouverte pour "faux en écriture publique, prise illégale d'intérêts, détournements de fonds publics et recel".
That's correct. Those two groups of muderers had blood of 2 millions Khmers in their hands. to the least, they took part in the early years of their reign of terror.
Tell us, who kill Prince Sirimatak? Lon Non? and Ung Bun Hor? when those two groups marching into Phnom Pehn in April 1975? Who was the young KR officer that is now so famously in the land? The wind is wishpering louder and louder each day. Hopefully soon or later we will unmask that murderer in a day light.
Wrong, this trial is not who murdered the criminals Sarimatak, Lon Nol, Ung Bun Hor, but who murdered ordinary Khmer People.
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