PHNOM PENH (AFP) — Former Khmer Rouge leader Khieu Samphan demanded his release by Cambodia's UN-backed genocide tribunal Thursday on the grounds that his file has not been translated into French for his lawyers.
Khieu Samphan, 77, spoke in a hoarse voice after hearing arguments between prosecutors and his defence team, which includes famed French lawyer Jacques Verges and Cambodian lawyer Sa Sovan, and prosecutors.
The genocidal regime's former head of state and his lawyers argued that in the absence of the translation of the documents into French -- one of the court's three official languages -- Khieu Samphan would not have a fair trial.
"When my lawyers fully understand the documents, I am confident that as I have no guilt at all I would not have been detained up to now," he told the court, wearing a dark grey and blue collared shirt and standing in the dock.
Verges, who has defended some of the world's most infamous figures including Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie and Venezuelan terrorist "Carlos the Jackal", said only 2.5 percent of the 60,000-page case file had been translated.
"The documents I was referring to are almost completely in Khmer and only a small portion has been translated," he said, warning that "a tremendous task is still ahead."
But prosecutors argued that the appeal was inadmissible because the court's governing laws do not provide for appeals relating to the issue of translation.
They asked Khieu Samphan's lawyers to cooperate, saying that the Khmer Rouge figure himself can understand them and that only a fraction of the documents were substantial.
Verges responded, saying that the prosecution "are mocking us... it is a joke.... We need to see documents in French."
Judges said they would rule on the matter at a later date.
Khieu Samphan was detained by the court in November last year on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity under the Khmer Rouge's brutal 1975-1979 regime.
He went before the court for the first time in April to appeal against his pre-trial detention.
But the judges adjourned the hearing and warned Verges over his behaviour after he said he was unable to act for his client because court documents had not been translated.
A fierce anti-colonialist, Verges, who was born in Thailand, reportedly befriended Khieu Samphan and other future Khmer Rouge leaders while at university in Paris in the 1950s.
Khieu Samphan is one of five Khmer Rouge leaders who have been detained by the court for their alleged roles in the regime.
Up to two million people are believed to have been executed or died of starvation and overwork as the communist regime emptied Cambodia's cities, exiling millions to vast collective farms in a bid to forge an agrarian utopia.
Cambodia's genocide tribunal convened in 2006 after nearly a decade of haggling between the government and the United Nations.
Khieu Samphan, 77, spoke in a hoarse voice after hearing arguments between prosecutors and his defence team, which includes famed French lawyer Jacques Verges and Cambodian lawyer Sa Sovan, and prosecutors.
The genocidal regime's former head of state and his lawyers argued that in the absence of the translation of the documents into French -- one of the court's three official languages -- Khieu Samphan would not have a fair trial.
"When my lawyers fully understand the documents, I am confident that as I have no guilt at all I would not have been detained up to now," he told the court, wearing a dark grey and blue collared shirt and standing in the dock.
Verges, who has defended some of the world's most infamous figures including Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie and Venezuelan terrorist "Carlos the Jackal", said only 2.5 percent of the 60,000-page case file had been translated.
"The documents I was referring to are almost completely in Khmer and only a small portion has been translated," he said, warning that "a tremendous task is still ahead."
But prosecutors argued that the appeal was inadmissible because the court's governing laws do not provide for appeals relating to the issue of translation.
They asked Khieu Samphan's lawyers to cooperate, saying that the Khmer Rouge figure himself can understand them and that only a fraction of the documents were substantial.
Verges responded, saying that the prosecution "are mocking us... it is a joke.... We need to see documents in French."
Judges said they would rule on the matter at a later date.
Khieu Samphan was detained by the court in November last year on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity under the Khmer Rouge's brutal 1975-1979 regime.
He went before the court for the first time in April to appeal against his pre-trial detention.
But the judges adjourned the hearing and warned Verges over his behaviour after he said he was unable to act for his client because court documents had not been translated.
A fierce anti-colonialist, Verges, who was born in Thailand, reportedly befriended Khieu Samphan and other future Khmer Rouge leaders while at university in Paris in the 1950s.
Khieu Samphan is one of five Khmer Rouge leaders who have been detained by the court for their alleged roles in the regime.
Up to two million people are believed to have been executed or died of starvation and overwork as the communist regime emptied Cambodia's cities, exiling millions to vast collective farms in a bid to forge an agrarian utopia.
Cambodia's genocide tribunal convened in 2006 after nearly a decade of haggling between the government and the United Nations.
8 comments:
Iraq had hanged Saddam Hussein and a lots of his
cronies. The Saddam's regime killed less than
Khmer Rouge. Khieu Samphan did not feel guilty at all.
Neither the Kor-5 regime. Which killed a lots of khmers.
Khmer Canadian
Ah corrupted ECCC must stop abusing Human Rights in the Kingdom.
the KR people don't believe in karma or god, that's why they are what they are!
"Pour la Chine, la France est le maillon faible de l'Europe"
Après avoir renoncé à rencontrer le dalaï-lama en août à Paris, Nicolas Sarkozy a finalement annoncé qu'il rencontrerait le chef spirituel tibétain en Pologne samedi 6 décembre. Réplique immédiate de Pékin : le sommet Chine-UE, prévu le 1er décembre à Lyon, a été annulé. Jeudi, la Chine a été plus loin, menaçant Paris de mesures de rétorsion économique. Jean-Vincent Brisset, directeur de recherche à l'Institut de relations internationales et stratégiques, et spécialiste de la Chine, explique les raisons de l'intransigeance de Pékin.
Comment rétablir des relations plus saines avec la Chine ?
Il y a heureusement beaucoup de gens en Europe qui commencent à comprendre que la Chine n'est pas un pays ami. C'est un pays égoïste qui a des rapports rugueux avec le reste du monde, avec lequel il faut prendre un peu de distance. Cela s'est ressenti dans les premières déclarations européennes après l'annulation du sommet Chine-UE : Manuel Barroso a commencé par expliquer que le problème concernait toute l'Europe, pas seulement la France, et surtout qu'il y avait un problème du côté chinois. La Chine attend maintenant de voir si Sarkozy ira bien voir le dalaï-lama en Pologne. Elle teste la solidité de l'Europe, pas de la France : si elle impose des mesures de rétorsion bilatérales contre la France et que les Européens laissent faire, elle aura tout gagné. Mais si la France se retranche derrière l'Europe et que l'UE reste solidaire, ça se passera très bien. Si l'Europe faiblit, la Chine pourra piétiner tous les pays européens l'un après l'autre, sauf la Grande-Bretagne, qui ne se laissera jamais faire.
No need to release this predator. Try him until the day he dies for his accountability and the crime he’d done to millions of innocent Cambodians during his regime. He is liable for that.
May the souls and those who died throughout this atrocity period be rest in peace. May God Buddha bless Cambodia and her people.
He can rest in jail while waiting for his documentation to be translated. It is more luxury and freedom compare to the limitation of movement and the house or food he provided us during his regime.
Don't release that monster and make sure when he dies, his soul is sealed and can never reicarnate again. I was only a little girl but I am still having a nightmare about it.
Most of his nieces and nephews are living in Australia. They are doing well with businesses and thanks to the capital they saved during their uncle's regime to start these businesses.
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