Cambodia to consider bail request for Thai engineer on Friday

BANGKOK, Nov 30 (TNA) - A Cambodian court will hear Thailand's bail request bid on Friday for the Thai engineer in Phnom Penh on espionage charges and affirmed that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) had done its utmost to help him, according to MFA Department of Information director-general Vimon Kidchob.

Siwarak Chutipong, an employee of Thai-owned Cambodia Air Traffic Services (CATS), was arrested by Cambodian police November 12 on charges of passing to Thai diplomatic officials what the Cambodian authorities considered as privileged information regarding the flight of fugitive former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra when he made his recent visit.

Ms Vimon said she believed that Simarak na Nakon Panom, Mr Siwarak's mother, understood the procedure and had made an appointment with the Thai officials to go to Cambodia again next Monday (December 7 to hear the court's verdict) on the next day but she may want to visit him sooner.

However, Ms Vimon said that the mother had not informed the ministry of her desire to visit her son earlier than planned.

Mrs Simarak on Monday met former foreign minister Noppadon Pattama at Thailand’s opposition Puea Thai Party headquarters, seeking his assistance to get bail for her son and permission from Cambodia to visit him again.

She claimed that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had moved too slowly for her to help her son.

Mr Noppadon, a legal adviser to convicted ex-premier Thaksin, said he would help her on a humanitarian basis by using his old connections in Phnom Penh to help Mrs Simarak see her son again and he did not want his move to be seen as a political issue.

Court documents say KRouge jailer to appeal detention by Cambodia

File picture February, 2003 shows Kaing Geuk Eav alias "Duch". The jailed Khmer Rouge prison chief will on Tuesday appeal his detention by Cambodia's genocide tribunal in the first public hearing at the UN-backed court since its creation last year (Photo: AFP)

Tuesday November 20, 2007

PHNOM PENH (AFP) - Jailed Khmer Rouge prison chief "Duch" will on Tuesday appeal his detention by Cambodia's genocide tribunal in the first public hearing at the UN-backed court since its creation last year.

Lawyers for Kaing Guek Eav, whose revolutionary name was Duch, will argue that years spent imprisoned without trial by another court are grounds for his release, legal documents show, in what many see as a key opening test of the tribunal's credibility.

Established in July 2006 after nearly a decade of tense negotiations between Cambodia and the UN, the long-stalled tribunal seeks to prosecute crimes committed 30 years ago by senior regime leaders.

But since it opened, corruption allegations and infighting between judges have buffeted the court and raised fears of more delays.

With trials not expected until mid-2008, Tuesday's hearing has been widely anticipated as a gauge of how well the court can begin reconciling a nation with its distant, but brutal past.

"It is the first public test of professionalism and hence credibility for the (tribunal)," said David Scheffer, a former US Ambassador at Large for War Crimes Issues and a key negotiator in the tribunal's creation.

"I am confident it can deal with the legal complexities of the cases that come before it," he added.

Duch allegedly oversaw the torture and extermination of some 16,000 men, women and children at the Khmer Rouge's Tuol Sleng prison during the regime's 1975-79 rule over Cambodia.

He was arrested by the tribunal in July -- the first top cadre to be detained -- and charged with crimes against humanity pending further investigation of the case against him.

In interviews with journalists in 1999 shortly before he was seized by the government, Duch -- by then a born-again Christian discovered working in refugee camps on the Thai border -- admitted to his role in the Tuol Sleng atrocities and said he wanted to stand trial.

But Duch's lawyers say eight years spent in military prison prior to his transfer to the tribunal violate Cambodian law, as well as international legal standards, and should be reason for his immediate release.

In extending Duch's pre-trial detention for a ninth year, tribunal judges have "contributed to the excessive duration" of his imprisonment, Duch's lawyers said in their appeal filed in September.

The judges acknowledged these concerns in their orders for Duch's imprisonment, saying: "His continued provisional detention is problematic in light of international standards of justice," according to court documents issued at the time of his arrest.

But the judges also consider Duch, 65, a flight risk, and ordered him detained "on the grounds that there are well-founded reasons to believe that he participated in the crimes" committed by the Khmer Rouge.

Up to two million people were 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 during its 1975-79 rule.

The Khmer Rouge also abolished money, religion and schools.

So far five top leaders have been detained by the tribunal. Former head of state Khieu Samphan was arrested Monday.

Foreign minister Ieng Sary and his wife, former social affairs minister Ieng Thirith were seized last week, while regime ideologue Nuon Chea was arrested in September.

Close door meeting for the preparation of the Nov 20 hearing on Duch’s case

29-10-2007
By Leang Delux
Cambodge Soir
Translated from French by Luc Sâr

A communiqué sent to the news media by the preliminary chamber of the ECCC, on Monday 29 October, announced a close door meeting for the preparation hearing to the one that will be decide on the bail release of Duch.

Prak Kim San, the president of the preliminary chamber of the ECCC, distributed a communiqué to announce that the hearing planned for 15 November, aimed at preparing the 20 November hearing procedures, will finally be held behind closed door. On 20 November, a decision will be made as to whether Duch’s jailing will end or not, or whether he will be released by placed under surveillance. This procedure follows the complaint brought up last 23 August by Duch’s lawyers who asked for a bail release of their client. Last week, the ECCC informed that a public hearing will be held on 15 November in order to prepare the directives for the 20 November hearing. The public attendance has been modified, and, according to Prak Kim San, it was both sides (ECCC and Duch’s lawyers) which proposed a closed door hearing. “In view of the fact that the preparation hearing will be held only to prepare the first ECCC hearing, it (preparation hearing) could be held behind closed door, based on Article 77 (5) of the internal rules,” Prak Kim San said in his communiqué.

Van Nath: "[Duch] committed many atrocious offenses ... If the hearing decides to release him, I will be speechless."

Bail Hearing Set for Duch

Mean Veasna, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
24 October 2007

The two-part hearing to decide whether Kaing Khek Iev, alias Duch, will be released from jail ahead of his atrocity crimes trial has been set for mid-November, Khmer Rouge tribunal officials confirmed Wednesday.

The pre-trial chamber of the special courts will decide in two hearings—one on Nov. 15 and the other on Nov. 20—on whether Duch's incarceration since 1999 was unlawful or an abuse of his rights.

Both "parts" of the hearing will be public, but only the second will be "official," said Prak Kimsan, head of the pre-trial chamber of the tribunal courts. For many Cambodians, the public hearings will offer a first glimpse of the first defendant of the tribunal process.

Duch stands accused of crimes against humanity for his role as the supervisor of Phnom Penh's infamous Tuol Sleng torture center, where as many as 16,000 were tortured and executed.

He was held by Cambodia's military courts from 1999 through July this year, when he was moved to the custody of the tribunal courts.

Duch's Cambodian defense attorney, Kar Savuth declined comment Wednesday.

Tribunal spokesman Reach Sambath said the hearings would give Duch's attorneys the best possible chance to petition for his release ahead of a trial, which has not yet been scheduled but is not expected until at least February 2008.

The Nov. 15 hearing will last "about one hour," Reach Sambath said. "The official hearing on Nov. 20, at 10:00 am, might go on to Nov. 21."

One of the few survivors of Tuol Sleng, painter Van Nath, told VOA Khmer Wednesday he will not attend the hearings, due to poor health. But he said he would regret seeing Duch free ahead of his trial.

"Think about it. He committed many atrocious offenses," Van Nath said. "If the hearing decides to release him, I will be speechless."

Bail hearing set for former Khmer Rouge prison chief

Wed, 24 Oct 2007
DPA

Phnom Penh - The bail hearing for the former chief of the Khmer Rouge's most notorious prison has been set for next month, the court said in a statement Wednesday. Kang Keng Iev, alias Duch, who ran the S-21 Toul Sleng torture centre where up to 14,000 people were processed to be tortured and killed, will fight his detention order next month, the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) said.

"The pre-trial chamber schedules Tuesday, November 20, for the public hearing of appeal ... against the order for provisional detention," the ECCC said.

Born-again Christian Duch was arrested and detained in 1999 after photo-journalist Nic Dunlop discovered him working for a non-government organization in the nation's north-west.

Up to 2 million people died under the 1975-79 Khmer Rouge regime. The 56-million-dollar joint UN-Cambodia ECCC is expected to begin hearings early next year.

S-21 jail chief: Get me out of jail

Tribunal Plans Bail Hearing for Duch

Mean Veasna, VOA Khmer
Orginal report from Phnom Penh
09 October 2007

The pre-trial chamber of the tribunal courts has set a window for a hearing date to decide whether Kaing Khek Iev, the torture center chief better known by his revolutionary name Duch, can leave detention ahead of his trial for atrocity crimes.

The hearing will be between Nov. 15 and Feb. 17, 2008, when Duch's French lawyer, Francois Roux, "has free time," tribunal spokesman Reach Sambath said.

Duch was held by Cambodia's military courts from his arrest in 1999 through June this year, when he was turned over to the jurisdiction of the tribunal.

His lawyers have argued that Duch has been in prison in excess and should be freed ahead of his trial.