Cambodian Khmer trial rejects lawyer's translation request

Fri, 20 Feb 2009
Australia Network News

Lawyers for former Khmer Rouge head of state Khieu Samphan have lost an appeal at the United Nations-backed genocide tribunal underway in Cambodia to have his case-file translated into French.

Khieu Samphan and his legal team had argued that French was one of the court's three official languages, and that if the associated documents were not available in that language, he would not receive a fair trial.

The appeal was lodged with the tribunal late last year, with Khieu Samphan's French lawyer, Jacques Verges, arguing that less than 3 percent of the 60,000-page case file had been translated into French.

However Judge Prak Kimsan, the head of the tribunal's pre-trial chamber, ruled the appeal was inadmissible because the court's rules do not provide for appeals relating to translation issues.

Mr Verges, who has defended some of the world's most controversial figures, including the Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie, is defending 77-year-old Khieu Samphan, one of five leaders of the Khmer Rouge regime.

The group are being tried separately at the tribunal, for crimes relating to the deaths of up to 2 million Cambodians during the Khmer Rouge's period in office from 1975-1979.

Earlier this week the trial began of Khmer prison chief Kaing Guek Eav, better known by his alias Duch.

French lawyer for Khmer Rouge leader challenges tribunal, triggering new delay

Thursday, April 24, 2008
The Associated Press

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia: A French lawyer known for his provocative style and infamous clients has taken center stage at the tribunal on Cambodia's former Khmer Rouge leaders, challenging the judges and adding to the woes of an already troubled court.

The aggressive stance taken by Jacques Verges at an appeal by former Khmer Rouge president Khieu Samphan for release from pre-trial detention Wednesday augurs possible new hurdles for the tribunal, plagued over the past few years by political wrangling, corruption scandals and inadequate financing.

The U.N.-assisted tribunal seeks justice for the 1.7 million people who died from starvation, disease, overwork and execution as a result of the communist Khmer Rouge's radical attempt to build a classless society when they held power in 1975-79. Khieu Samphan has denied responsibility for the atrocities.

But the spotlight Wednesday was on the 83-year-old Verges, who triggered a delay in the pre-trial hearing with an outburst over the court's failure to translate case documents into French.

Verges is every bit as controversial as the people he defends, going back five decades ago to Algerian freedom fighters accused of terrorism. His notoriety is such that he was the subject of a feature-length documentary film last year, "Terror's Advocate."

The list of his past clients includes included Nazi Gestapo officer Klaus Barbie and French collaborators, Venezuelan terrorist Carlos the Jackal and various Palestinian hijackers, former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, and confessed serial killer Charles Sobhraj.

He has also looked after the interests of Saddam Hussein and several brutal African dictators -- but has represented some true underdogs as well, mainly working-class citizens from France's ethnic minority communities.

Verges himself was born in northeastern Thailand to a French diplomat and a Vietnamese mother, a union said to have hurt his father's career. He has suggested his ethnic background has made him sympathetic to underdogs and outcasts.

Verges has said he likes to employ what he calls a "rupture" strategy, questioning the legitimacy of the court and accusing it of being a tool of injustice.

On Wednesday he described the tribunal's case against Khieu Samphan as "invalid from the start."

Verges and Khieu Samphan, 76, have said they have known each other since they both were active in left-wing student activities in Paris in the 1950s.

The tribunal has charged Khieu Samphan with crimes against humanity and war crimes, detaining him since last November.

Wednesday's closed-door hearing on Khieu Samphan's appeal was abruptly adjourned when Verges refused to continue, protesting that Khieu Samphan's case file — thousands of pages of documents — had not been translated into French.

"French is an official language of the tribunal. There is not one page of the case file against Mr. Khieu Samphan translated into French," Verges explained afterward to reporters. "I should be capable of knowing what my client is blamed for."

After Verges refused to participate further, the judges suggested Khieu Samphan might want to appoint a new lawyer to represent him_ and then adjourned the hearing.

"I have been a lawyer for 50 years, it is the first time I have seen judges ask an accused to change his lawyer. This is a scandal!" he said. "This never happens except in dictatorships!"

The tribunal's judges said in a statement issued late Wednesday that they will "issue a warning" to Verges for courtroom behavior causing the hearing's postponement.

Tribunal rules allow for disciplinary actions, including dismissing lawyers for offensive or abusive behavior obstructing the proceedings.

One of the Cambodian prosecutors, Chea Leang, acknowledged to reporters that the court is facing difficulty translating documents for all its cases into the three official languages used by the tribunal — Khmer, English and French.

But she said Verges' refusal to participate in the hearing was "unreasonable" because the proceedings were not part of the actual trial.

The long-delayed tribunal is expected to hold its first trial later this year. Many fear the Khmer Rouge's aging leaders could die before being brought to justice; four other senior former Khmer Rouge are being held for trial.

Khieu Samphan has blamed the late Khmer Rouge chief Pol Pot for the group's policies, including decisions to purge many Khmer Rouge cadres suspected of being disloyal or spies.

Lawyer slams 'illegal' detention of Khmer Rouge leader

French lawyer Jacques Verges answers questions after the hearing of former Khmer Rouge leader Khieu Samphan at the Extraodinary Chambers in the Court of Cambodia (ECCC) in Phnom Penh. Verges said his client's denttion was "illegal". (AFP/Tang Chhin Sothy)

PHNOM PENH (AFP) — Former Khmer Rouge head of state Khieu Samphan went before Cambodia's genocide tribunal for a pre-trial hearing Wednesday, where famed French lawyer Jacques Verges branded his detention "illegal."

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.

The controversial Verges, who has defended some of the world's most infamous figures, told reporters he was "indignant" to discover 16,000 pages of court documents had not been translated into French, one of the court's three official languages, for Khieu Samphan's appeal against his detention without bail.

"His detention is illegal because it has been ordered from a file to which his lawyers did not have access," the lawyer, whose notorious clients have included Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie and Venezuelan terrorist "Carlos the Jackal," said after Khieu Samphan made his first public appearance before the UN-backed tribunal.

The judges said Verges and his Cambodian co-lawyer had given no indication of any such difficulties since filing their appeal on December 21, 2007, adding that all the relevant documents had been translated.

"As a consequence of the behaviour of the international co-lawyer advising with effectively no notice that he will not continue to act in this appeal within the circumstances mentioned above, a warning is given to him," they said in a statement on their decision to adjourn the proceedings to a date to be decided.

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, who was detained by the court in November on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity, earlier listened stony-faced as head judge Prak Kimsan read out the background of the case against him.

He then told the court, which was set up to try former Khmer Rouge leaders for genocide and crimes against humanity during their brutal 1975-1979 rule, that he had lived in poverty for the past 10 years.

"I have had no job since leaving the jungle. (I have) only my wife, who struggles to feed me and my family," Khieu Samphan said in Khmer, referring to his 1998 defection from the then-dying Khmer Rouge guerrilla movement based in the remote northwest.

Khieu Samphan, who court documents say is 76, was dressed in a light-grey shirt and trousers and spoke in a quiet, hoarse voice as he addressed the three Cambodian and two foreign judges, an AFP reporter at the court said.

According to the prosecution charges, Khieu Samphan aided and abetted the Khmer Rouge regime in policies which were "characterised by murder, extermination, imprisonment, persecution on political grounds and other inhumane acts."

Defence lawyers argue that Khieu Samphan had no real power under the regime and in appeal documents lodged in December they petitioned for a dismissal of the detention order "because Mr Khieu Samphan is not guilty."

"He was simply a head of state in name only," they said in the documents.

Khieu Samphan, the last of five top regime leaders to be arrested and detained by the tribunal, has never denied the bloodletting under the Khmer Rouge but has repeatedly denied his involvement in the atrocities.

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 Lawyer Demands French Translation

Jacques Vergès aka the Devil's Advocate at his apartment in Paris (Photo: NY Times)

By Mean Veasna, VOA Khmer
Phnom Penh
22 February 2008

Jailed Khmer Rouge leader Khieu Samphan has refused to work with tribunal investigators until the 16,000 pages of documents to be used against him are translated into French, a lawyer confirmed Friday.

The documents are being translated at the behest of infamous French attorney Jacques Verges, who is part of Khieu Samphan's defense team.