Ieng Sary’s defense alludes to the possibility of the ECCC’s disappearance

Michael Karnavas, Ieng Sary's defense lawyer (Photo: AN, Cambodge Soir Hebdo)

02 April 2009
By A.L.G.
Cambodge Soir Hebdo
Translated from French by Luc Sâr
Click here to read the article in French

Ang Udom and Michael Karnavas, co-defense lawyers for the ex-KR Foreign Affairs minister, used Hun Sen’s claim made on 31 March and the alleged tribunal corruption to contest the provisional detention of their client.

On Thursday 02 April, Ieng Sary’s defense lawyers talked about a possible disappearance of the ECCC during the appeal hearing against the extension of the provisional detention of their client.

“Two days ago, PM Hun Sen indicated that he was deceived that Japan gave $200,000 to pay the salary of the Cambodian side of the Tribunal,” Michael Karnavas said. “Now, donor countries are hesitating to finance [the ECCC].”

“Everything is tied,” the US lawyer added. “With the budget crisis and the alleged corruption, will we be here in six months? Must they continue to detain Mr. Ieng Sary, knowing that the prosecution will not be able to follow suit?”

Pursuing his argument while asking for an investigation on the tribunal corruption, Michael Karnavas was interrupted by Anees Ahmed, the Indian co-prosecutor, who noted that the word “corruption” does not appear in on the 19-page appeal memo, therefore, the defense cannot raise this argument.

The judges asked the defense to continue and to evoke only medical reasons to justify Ieng Sary’s house arrest, Michael Karnavas preferred letting the co-prosecutor speak.

During the previous hearings, Victor Koppe and Michiel Pestman, Nuon Chea’s international lawyers, had also raised the KRT corruption issue, indicating that such allegations would compromise their client’s right to a fair trial.

Ieng Sary Defense To Appeal Site Gag Order

By Chun Sakada, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
05 March 2009

Defense lawyers of jailed Khmer Rouge leader Ieng Sary filed an appeal Thursday against a tribunal order for the removal of documents on a Web site deemed confidential to the trial process.

The defense sent a notice of their appeal to investigating judges Marcel Lemonde and You Bunleang, who ordered the removal of the documents from a Web site on Tuesday.

“This morning we filed a letter to the co-investigating judges, to announce to them that we appeal against the order,” Cambodian defense attorney Ang Udom told VOA Khmer Thursday. “After that we will submit a thesis of the appeal.”

The team has 30 days to prepare the full thesis, from March 3, the date of the order, he said.

Tribunal spokesman Reach Sambath confirmed the appeal had been filed at the Pre-Trial Chamber of the court, but he could not confirm a date the chamber would consider the appeal.

The defense team for Ieng Sary, who is 84 and in poor health, has said the orders to remove three documents from the Web site are not warranted and that any information they’ve posted on their Web site was public.

The judges ordered the removal of three documents: an appeal against the tribunal’s refusal to appoint a psychiatrist to Ieng Sary and requests for information about two international staff members of the court.

Judges Threaten Sanctions of Tribunal Defense Team

By Kong Sothanarith, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
04 March 2009

The defense team for jailed Khmer Rouge leader Ieng Sary agreed to temporarily withdraw information from a Web site Wednesday, following orders from tribunal judges over concerns of confidentiality.

Ang Udom, Cambodian defense for Ieng Sary, said the team had decided to remove the content in order to retain good relations with the court.

“Most of what [the judges] raised is incorrect,” he said. “We posted only what was related to legal procedure, that which we expect the public should know, understand and hear and that [the judges] hide.”

In a statement posted on their Web site Wednesday, the defense lawyers strongly disagreed with a court order to remove information posted on the site and said they planned to issue a public response to the “flawed legal reasoning” of the Office of Co-Investigating Judges.

The “confidential” documents sited by the investigating judges are, “in fact, public,” the lawyers said.

Tuesday’s order called for the removal of three documents from the site, the lawyers said: the appeal against the tribunal’s refusal to appoint a psychiatrist to Ieng Sary and requests for information about two international staff members of the court.

In a letter to the defense, investigating judges Marcel Lemonde and You Bunleng ordered the removal of the documents within 48 hours, threatening legal consequences if the order was not followed.

Ieng Sary, 84, whose health is the poorest among five jailed leaders, faces charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity for his role as foreign minister of and senior leader of the regime.

Tribunal spokesman Reach Sambath said his defense team had posted documents that were already banned by investigating judges.

Cambodian genocide court accused of lack of transparency

Wed, 04 Mar 2009
DPA

Phnom Penh - Attorneys for a former Khmer Rouge leader on Wednesday accused judges at Cambodia's UN-backed genocide tribunal of undermining the court's transparency by ordering the defence team to remove legal documents from the defence's website. Attorneys for former Khmer Rouge foreign minister Ieng Sary said in a statement that judges had acted with "flawed legal reasoning."

A court statement released a day earlier said defence lawyers Michael Karnavas and Ang Udom faced sanctions unless the documents were removed within 48 hours from the website on Ieng Sary's defence that the lawyers had set up.

The attorneys said the documents had to do with Ieng Sary's health and the admissibility of a psychiatric assessment of the defendant.

"The Ieng Sary defence will not shy away from making a small but important contribution to public and transparent judicial proceedings," Wednesday's statement said. "Nor will we give in to attempts, deliberate or inadvertent, to limit our right to speak out publicly to protect our client's interests."

The judges called the documents confidential, but the statement argued otherwise but added the documents had been removed from the website.

The website was accessible Wednesday evening, but the documents were not on it.

According to the site's mission statement, it was set up because of the judges' unwillingness to make public "defence filings which may be embarrassing or which call into question the legitimacy and judiciousness of acts and decisions of the judges."

Ieng Sary, 83, is one of five former Khmer Rouge leaders facing trial for their roles in the deaths of up to 2 million people through execution, starvation or overwork during the ultra-Maoist group's 1975-1979 reign.

The former schoolteacher has been hospitalized seven times since being arrested in August 2007 and was declared medically unfit to attend a pre-trial hearing in Phnom Penh last week.

The hearing was adjourned until April 2.

The defence lawyers' statement also accused the judges of inopportune timing after they issued their order after Karnavas had left the country after the adjourned pre-trial hearing.

"By filing this submission at the precise time that Mr Karnavas was on a plane back to The Netherlands suggests that this timing was a tactical decision," the statement charged.

Cambodia: Genocide Court Censures Defense Lawyers

2009-03-04
AP

PHNOM PENH, CAMBODIA: Fresh controversy broke out Tuesday (3 March) at Cambodia's genocide tribunal when judges censured two defense lawyers for posting what they said were confidential court documents on a Web site.

The U.N.-assisted tribunal said the lawyers posted the documents - legal requests and appeals to the court - on a legal Web site for their Khmer Rouge client despite repeated warnings not to.

The tribunal is seeking to establish responsibility for an estimated 1.7 million deaths during the brutal 1975-79 rule of Cambodia by the Khmer Rouge.

Lawyers Michael Karnavas of the U.S. and Ang Udom of Cambodia were accused of breaching court rules "by revealing confidential information," and "failing to act in accordance with the standards and ethics of the legal profession," according to a court order.

The tribunal demanded the lawyers remove the documents within 48 hours and said its six-page order would be sent to bar associations to which the lawyers belong for "any appropriate action."

Karnavas, who with his partner represents former Khmer Rouge Foreign Minister Ieng Sary, denied doing anything wrong in an e-mailed statement, but said they would remove the documents "until such time as this matter is sorted out."

"We have no intention to compromise or interfere with the investigation," Karnavas said. "We will however continue to press for a more accountable, responsive and transparent process."

The tribunal has been beset by controversy, mostly involving allegations of corruption and political interference.

The first trial, scheduled to begin 30 March, is for 65-year-old Kaing Guek Eav, better known as Duch, who headed the Khmer Rouge's largest torture center. It starts nearly three years after the court was established.

Cambodia KRouge defence warned over website

Tuesday, March 03, 2009

PHNOM PENH (AFP) — The defence team of a Khmer Rouge leader has been ordered to remove confidential documents from Cambodia's UN-backed war crimes court from a website, the tribunal's investigating judges said Tuesday.

Lawyers for former foreign minister Ieng Sary "face sanctions" if they do not remove all documents relating to judicial investigations within 48 hours, the court's co-investigating judges said in a press statement.

Ieng Sary, 83, is one of five leaders from the late 1970s regime charged with crimes against humanity and war crimes, but details of the investigation ahead of his trial are kept confidential.

Investigating judges said they needed "to guarantee the protection of privacy of those persons mentioned in the case file and the presumption of innocence, as well as to promote efficiency in investigations."

But the website containing defence filings and letters has also posted a letter to court officials saying that no documents on the site relate to the current investigation of Ieng Sary.

The letter by defence lawyers Michael Karnavas and Ang Udom goes on to allege that judges suppress filings "which may be embarrassing or which call into question the legitimacy and judiciousness of acts and decisions."

Ieng Sary has been rushed to hospital nine times since he was detained by the court in November 2007, and last week had an appeal for release from the Khmer Rouge court delayed after he said he was too ill to appear in court.

As the top Khmer Rouge diplomat, Ieng Sary was frequently the only point of contact between Cambodia's secretive communist rulers and the outside world.

He has denied any involvement in atrocities but he was one of the biggest public supporters of the regime's mass purges, researchers say.

Up to two million people died of starvation and overwork, or were executed, as the 1975-1979 regime emptied Cambodia's cities in its drive to create a communist utopia.

The long-awaited first Khmer Rouge trial started last month when the regime's notorious prison chief, Kaing Guek Eav, better known by the alias Duch, went before the court.

Tribunal Denies Paper Against 'Joint' Crimes

By Chun Sakada, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
19 December 2008

Defense lawyers for jailed Khmer Rouge leader Ieng Sary have accused the Pre-Trial Chamber of the tribunal of interfering in the administrative work of the courts, following a denial of their thesis on certain legal theories.

The defense had written their thesis to exclude from trials topics such as Joint Criminal Enterprise, which can hold conspiring parties guilty for crimes committed by one, and other legal principles.

"We wrote our thesis and requested intervention and the denial of the implementation of charges under Joint Criminal Enterprise, which affects the interest of our client because it is not in Cambodian law," sad Ang Udom, a lawyer for Ieng Sary.

Ieng Sary was foreign affairs minister of the regime and faces charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity for his role.

"We brought our thesis to the tribunal for a decision, but the tribunal turned it back to us without a hearing," he said. "It's not right to deny our thesis and proposal."

The defense has now sent a letter to the courts, claiming the Pre-Trial Chambers' decision not to consider the thesis was interference in administrative work.

"If someone complains about a case to the court, the court receives the complaint," he said. "Whatever the court decides, the court should issue a verdict."

However, tribunal spokesman Reach Sambath said the chamber was within its rights to turn away the treatise.

Ang Udom issued a letter to the courts Thursday claiming he would launch the paper on his own Web site.

"If the court does not publish our thesis, we will post it on our Web site," he said. "If the court permits."

Reach Sambath said the team had a right to launch a Web site, but the Khmer Rouge tribunal Web site is officially recognized.

Ieng Sary's lawyer: Ieng Sary should get bail release so he can remain alive to testify about the KR regime

Ieng Sary continues to demand bail

Thursday, January 31, 2008
Everyday.com.kh
Translated from Khmer by Socheata

Ieng Sary, the former minister of Foreign Affairs of the Democratic Kampuchea (Khmer Rouge) regime, who is currently incarcerated that the KR Tribunal, still maintains his position in his demand for bail release, based on his aging health condition. Ang Udom, Ieng Sary’s lawyer, told VOA that his client still demands for bail release and that the KRT should not place its focus on jailing his defendant, if the tribunal wants the latter to remain alive to answer and clarify the tribunal. Ang Udom said that Ieng Sary should be placed under house arrest because his illness is an emotional illness that requires intense care from his relatives. Ang Udom said that it would be a good thing that his client could remain alive to clarify to the tribunal about the truth on the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime. Reach Sambath, KRT spokesman, said only the 5 judges of the ECCC can decide on whether Ieng Sary will receive bail release or not.

Ieng Sary's Lawyer Requests House Arrest [... S-21/Tuol Sleng is still empty if Ieng Sary needs a quiet resting place]

By Chiep Mony, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
22 January 2008

The lawyer for jailed Khmer Rouge leader Ieng Sary said Tuesday he wants his client released from a tribunal detention facility and placed under house arrest ahead of any atrocity crimes trial.

Former foreign minister Ieng Sary, who is 78 and suffers from heart problems, was arrested in November and charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity.

"It would be OK if this were a normal illness such as backache, fever, headache, dizziness," said lawyer Ang Udom. "But this is a critical illness. You know, it is heart disease. It has been operated on."

Hisham Moussar, tribunal monitor for the rights group Adhoc, said Tuesday such a release could allow a suspect to cast his influence on evidence or witnesses.

Tribunal spokesman Reach Sambath said Tuesday the pre-trial judges will have a chance to decide on pre-trial release, which, if granted, would allow Ieng Sary to stay at his home in Phnom Penh ahead of a trial.

Ieng Sary and his wife have selected their lawyers

13-11-2007
By Pen Bona
Cambodge Soir
Translated from French by Luc Sâr

The day after their arrest, the Ieng couple have designated their defense lawyers.

After their arrests on 12 November, Ieng Sary, Democratic Kampuchea minister of Foreign Affairs, and his wife, Ieng Thirith, former minister of social affairs, have selected their defense lawyers. Ieng Sary selected Ang Udom, a lawyer since 1999 and current director of the legal unit for the Center for Social Development, to represent him at the ECCC. He should be choosing a foreign lawyer also sometimes this week. Ieng Thirith will be represented by two lawyers: Phat Pouv Seang, legal consultant to the legislative and judiciary committee of the National Assembly, and British lawyer Diana Ellis. Ieng Sary and Ieng Thirith were arrested and charged by the prosecuting co-judges for crimes against humanity and war crimes for Ieng Sary, and crimes against humanity for his wife.