Ieng Sary, centre, is among five Khmer leaders to be tried for war crimes [AFP]Monday, June 30, 2008
Al Jazeera
The former foreign minister of Cambodia's Khmer Rouge regime has appeared at a United Nations-backed tribunal to appeal for release from his pre-trial detention.
Ieng Sary, 82, is charged with crimes against humanity and war crimes.
His wife, Ieng Thirith, 76, who served as social affairs minister of the Khmer government led by Pol Pot during the 1970s, is also facing similar charges.
The couple is among members of Pol Pot's inner circle due to stand trial later this year.
Five former surviving Khmer Rouge leaders have been charged with the deaths of about two million people as a result of starvation, disease, overwork and execution in Cambodia's "killing fields".
A detention order in November said Ieng Sary is being prosecuted for supporting Khmer Rouge policies that were "characterised by murder, extermination, imprisonment, persecution on political grounds and other inhuman acts such as forcible transfers of the population, enslavement and forced labour".
Charges 'unacceptable'
Like other surviving Khmer Rouge leaders, Ieng Sary denied responsibility for any crimes and dismissed the charges as "unacceptable".
On Monday the defence said Ieng Sary has a right to fair trial and should be placed under either house arrest or protective hospitalisation, and undergo proper examination to determine whether he is fit to stand trial.
Michael Karnavas, Ieng Sary's US lawyer, said his client's "weak physical and mental capacity" raised concerns about his ability "to follow proceedings".
"We cannot go forward on this very critical issue," he said, adding that it is "a violation of equal protection".
"I don't believe that these are the so-called international standards that our friends, the prosecution, are advocating," added Karnavas.
The UN-backed tribunal is expected to announce a new budget after ballooning costs put a strain on its funding.
The rise in cost is partly due to the sheer volume of pre-trial hearings to be heard by a joint panel presided by five international and Cambodian judges.
The initial budget was $56m spread over three years.
The Khmer Rouge's former supreme leader, Pol Pot, known as 'Brother Number One', died in his jungle hideout in 1998.
Tribunal officials expect the trial process to last at least until 2011 but critics say the advanced ages and frail health of all the accused means that any sentences eventually handed down are likely to be little more than symbolic.
Ieng Sary, 82, is charged with crimes against humanity and war crimes.
His wife, Ieng Thirith, 76, who served as social affairs minister of the Khmer government led by Pol Pot during the 1970s, is also facing similar charges.
The couple is among members of Pol Pot's inner circle due to stand trial later this year.
Five former surviving Khmer Rouge leaders have been charged with the deaths of about two million people as a result of starvation, disease, overwork and execution in Cambodia's "killing fields".
A detention order in November said Ieng Sary is being prosecuted for supporting Khmer Rouge policies that were "characterised by murder, extermination, imprisonment, persecution on political grounds and other inhuman acts such as forcible transfers of the population, enslavement and forced labour".
Charges 'unacceptable'
Like other surviving Khmer Rouge leaders, Ieng Sary denied responsibility for any crimes and dismissed the charges as "unacceptable".
On Monday the defence said Ieng Sary has a right to fair trial and should be placed under either house arrest or protective hospitalisation, and undergo proper examination to determine whether he is fit to stand trial.
Michael Karnavas, Ieng Sary's US lawyer, said his client's "weak physical and mental capacity" raised concerns about his ability "to follow proceedings".
"We cannot go forward on this very critical issue," he said, adding that it is "a violation of equal protection".
"I don't believe that these are the so-called international standards that our friends, the prosecution, are advocating," added Karnavas.
The UN-backed tribunal is expected to announce a new budget after ballooning costs put a strain on its funding.
The rise in cost is partly due to the sheer volume of pre-trial hearings to be heard by a joint panel presided by five international and Cambodian judges.
The initial budget was $56m spread over three years.
The Khmer Rouge's former supreme leader, Pol Pot, known as 'Brother Number One', died in his jungle hideout in 1998.
Tribunal officials expect the trial process to last at least until 2011 but critics say the advanced ages and frail health of all the accused means that any sentences eventually handed down are likely to be little more than symbolic.
2 comments:
For whatever will happen to the former Khmer Rouge leaders in the trial, and to Cambodia as a country, we as Cambodians should expect that we would all learn from the past to build the good future, but not to revenge each others.And to be able to learn from the past, we should have a very calm mind filled with compassion to observe the situation attentively. The very best way is to let those KR leaders speak their mind up. At the right athmosphere those KR might tell us a lot of things that we never heard of and learn more for the future.
Compassion
I would like to tell the Khmer Rough Tribunal that do not to release Ieng Sary and other Khmer Rough Leaders from trial detetion at all, if UN Tribunal release them a yuon/vietnamese will poisonning or kill them, all Khmer Rough Leaders will tell the UN Tribunal the truth one days when the time can give them to answer, all killing are A Yuon/Vietnamese Hidden Face Behind The Killing Field, I would like to request to UN Tribunal still continuing to support trial will be get evidence whom is murderers, from Cambodian Victim Melbourne Australia.
Post a Comment