DPA
Phnom Penh - Khieu Samphan, the Khmer Rouge former head of state, failed to appear at Cambodia's war crimes tribunal Thursday.
Khieu Samphan had requested Thursday's session after the tribunal rejected a request on April 30 to release him from pre-trial detention, tribunal spokesman Lars Olsen said.
"He informed the chamber today that he refused to appear," he said. "And he complained that he felt tired and weak."
Khieu Samphan is charged with genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity for his alleged role in the deaths of 1.7 million people during the movement's rule of Cambodia between 1975 and 1979.
Three other former leaders are also in pre-trial detention on similar charges. They are the movement's chief ideologue Nuon Chea, known as Brother Number Two; former foreign minister Ieng Sary; and his wife, the former social affairs minister Ieng Thirith.
The tribunal's April ruling on detention came after defence lawyers filed requests protesting the court's earlier decision last November to extend incarceration for a third and final year.
The court's investigating judges must decide later this year whether there is enough evidence to prosecute all four. Should the trial go ahead, as is expected, it will likely begin next year.
All four are elderly, and there are fears that one or more could die before any trial concludes.
The case will be the second that the hybrid UN-Cambodian tribunal will hear. The first saw Duch, who headed the regime's main torture centre, tried for crimes against humanity and war crimes. That verdict is scheduled for July 26.
The movement's leader Pol Pot died in 1998.
Khieu Samphan had requested Thursday's session after the tribunal rejected a request on April 30 to release him from pre-trial detention, tribunal spokesman Lars Olsen said.
"He informed the chamber today that he refused to appear," he said. "And he complained that he felt tired and weak."
Khieu Samphan is charged with genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity for his alleged role in the deaths of 1.7 million people during the movement's rule of Cambodia between 1975 and 1979.
Three other former leaders are also in pre-trial detention on similar charges. They are the movement's chief ideologue Nuon Chea, known as Brother Number Two; former foreign minister Ieng Sary; and his wife, the former social affairs minister Ieng Thirith.
The tribunal's April ruling on detention came after defence lawyers filed requests protesting the court's earlier decision last November to extend incarceration for a third and final year.
The court's investigating judges must decide later this year whether there is enough evidence to prosecute all four. Should the trial go ahead, as is expected, it will likely begin next year.
All four are elderly, and there are fears that one or more could die before any trial concludes.
The case will be the second that the hybrid UN-Cambodian tribunal will hear. The first saw Duch, who headed the regime's main torture centre, tried for crimes against humanity and war crimes. That verdict is scheduled for July 26.
The movement's leader Pol Pot died in 1998.
3 comments:
If you don't show up in court to defense yourself, you lose. That is too bad so sad and tough shit.
If sihaknuk Hun Sen not showing up in court neither afraid of their past crime what should Samphan should?
Coward!! Kheiv and Ieng. Bastard!!!!
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