2008-01-30Defense lawyers demand removal of Cambodian judge from UN-backed tribunal
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) - A Cambodian judge must immediately be removed from the U.N.-backed tribunal to try former Khmer Rouge leaders because of his dubious judicial record and political background, defense lawyers say.
The lawyers are objecting to Ney Thol, a judge who sits on the tribunal's pre-trial chamber that will hold an appeal hearing Feb. 4 for Nuon Chea, the former Khmer Rouge ideologue.
Ney Thol must be immediately disqualified not just from the upcoming hearing but from all future proceedings because his «continued presence on the bench threatens to undermine the credibility and integrity» of the entire tribunal, said Victor Koppe and Michiel Pestman in a motion received Wednesday.
Five senior Khmer Rouge figures, including Nuon Chea, whose radical policies led to the deaths of an estimated 1.7 million people in the 1970s, were arrested last year and are being held in the capital, Phnom Penh, on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Their trials are to start this year.
The two Dutch lawyers said that as an army general heading a military court and a member of Prime Minister Hun Sen's ruling party, Ney Thol «is neither independent or impartial.
Ney Thol declined to comment Wednesday.
Ney Thol is a member of the central committee of Hun Sen's ruling Cambodian People's Party and president of the military court. He is best known for convicting two political opponents of Hun Sen for national security-related crimes.
In 1998 Ney Thol sentenced Prince Norodom Ranariddh, leader of the royalist Funcinpec party at the time, to 30 years in jail for weapons smuggling and conspiring with outlawed Khmer Rouge guerrillas. The trial was mainly prompted by Hun Sen's desire to neuter his main political rival, whom he had already ousted from his position as co-prime minister in a 1997 coup.
In a 2005 trial widely regarded as politically motivated, Ney Thol sentenced an opposition lawmaker to seven years in jail for trying to form an armed group to topple the government. Ney Thol was criticized for his conduct of the trial, in which he barred the defense from calling its own witnesses to testify and not giving it enough time to cross-examine those from the prosecution.
Both Hun Sen's political rivals were later freed by royal pardons.
Ney Thol's «participation in highly questionable judicial decisions would lead a reasonable observer, properly informed, to reasonably apprehend bias against Nuon Chea,» the lawyers said.
Nuon Chea is scheduled to appear before a pre-trial hearing Feb. 4.
He is appealing against his provisional detention at the tribunal, which has charged him with war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The charges are related to his alleged role in the Khmer Rouge atrocities that led to the death of some 1.7 million people when the communist movement held power in Cambodia in 1975-79.
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) - A Cambodian judge must immediately be removed from the U.N.-backed tribunal to try former Khmer Rouge leaders because of his dubious judicial record and political background, defense lawyers say.
The lawyers are objecting to Ney Thol, a judge who sits on the tribunal's pre-trial chamber that will hold an appeal hearing Feb. 4 for Nuon Chea, the former Khmer Rouge ideologue.
Ney Thol must be immediately disqualified not just from the upcoming hearing but from all future proceedings because his «continued presence on the bench threatens to undermine the credibility and integrity» of the entire tribunal, said Victor Koppe and Michiel Pestman in a motion received Wednesday.
Five senior Khmer Rouge figures, including Nuon Chea, whose radical policies led to the deaths of an estimated 1.7 million people in the 1970s, were arrested last year and are being held in the capital, Phnom Penh, on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Their trials are to start this year.
The two Dutch lawyers said that as an army general heading a military court and a member of Prime Minister Hun Sen's ruling party, Ney Thol «is neither independent or impartial.
Ney Thol declined to comment Wednesday.
Ney Thol is a member of the central committee of Hun Sen's ruling Cambodian People's Party and president of the military court. He is best known for convicting two political opponents of Hun Sen for national security-related crimes.
In 1998 Ney Thol sentenced Prince Norodom Ranariddh, leader of the royalist Funcinpec party at the time, to 30 years in jail for weapons smuggling and conspiring with outlawed Khmer Rouge guerrillas. The trial was mainly prompted by Hun Sen's desire to neuter his main political rival, whom he had already ousted from his position as co-prime minister in a 1997 coup.
In a 2005 trial widely regarded as politically motivated, Ney Thol sentenced an opposition lawmaker to seven years in jail for trying to form an armed group to topple the government. Ney Thol was criticized for his conduct of the trial, in which he barred the defense from calling its own witnesses to testify and not giving it enough time to cross-examine those from the prosecution.
Both Hun Sen's political rivals were later freed by royal pardons.
Ney Thol's «participation in highly questionable judicial decisions would lead a reasonable observer, properly informed, to reasonably apprehend bias against Nuon Chea,» the lawyers said.
Nuon Chea is scheduled to appear before a pre-trial hearing Feb. 4.
He is appealing against his provisional detention at the tribunal, which has charged him with war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The charges are related to his alleged role in the Khmer Rouge atrocities that led to the death of some 1.7 million people when the communist movement held power in Cambodia in 1975-79.
3 comments:
Ney thol is ugly. Very, Very ugly.
To ensure the independence and impartiality of the Khmer Rouge or communism tribunal, all Cambodian judges and prisecutors should be vetted for their affiliation to political parties. Those who have such affiliation should be dropped.
It is said that 99 per cent of Cambodian judges and prosecutors, including the ones on that tribunal, are members of the Cambodian People's Party. And it should be remembered that the CPP is the same as the State of Cambodia, and the SOC is the same as the People's Republic of Kampuchea. The PRK, the SOC and CPP were and still are in conflict with the Khmer Rouge.
The judges and prosecutors who are CPP members cannot be seen as independent and impartial. They must all go.
LAO Mong Hay, Hong Kong
Evidently, the Khmer Rouge ideologists had both psychologically and physically excruciated its own people. Many victims were being arbitrarily executed. Those former arbitrary and audacious murderers are not reclusive these days. They have the impunity to living in a non-hostile environment, the ordinary people are not entitled to this type of privilege.
The vast majority of the Khmer Rouge atrocity survivors abroad are reluctant to discuss their past indelible experiences and memories during the genocidal regime.
I have learned that UN-backed Khmer Rouge genocide tribunal has been extended its court proceedings until 2012, if I'm not mistaken. Most atrocity survivors and I have skepticism and despair of this genocide tribunal. It has faced so many political and non-political impediments, including the shortage of the fund. It is beyong the Cambodina people comprehension.
I also have learned that the genocide tribunal judges were trying to persuade families of those victims in hoping for the support and optimism.
-- S.T.,USA. Jan. 31
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