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.

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.