Judges Dismiss Khieu Samphan Translation Request [-Français wat?]

By Kong Sothanarith, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
23 February 2009

Khmer Rouge tribunal judges on Friday rejected a request from Khieu Samphan that 60,000 pages of documentation be translated into French.

The request, made by French attorney Jacques Verges, had delayed for months proceedings against the former nominal head of the regime, who is charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity. Verges has said he would be unable to defend his client without the translations.

But following a hearing on the matter in December, the Pre-Trial Chamber decided unanimously that the request was not valid, judge Prak Kim San announced Friday.

The judges found no obligations stated in the rules of the tribunal that required translation, he said, noting limited resources as well as a time limit for the courts.

Khieu Samphan’s Cambodian attorney, Sar Savan, said the decision was unacceptable, though it was met with approval by both prosecutors and lawyers for civil parties in the case.

Khieu Samphan, 77, was arrested in November 2007, and his detention has already been extended for a year.

Khmer Rouge tribunal judges on Friday rejected a request from Khieu Samphan that 60,000 pages of documentation be translated into French.

The request, made by French attorney Jacques Verges, had delayed for months proceedings against the former nominal head of the regime, who is charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity. Verges has said he would be unable to defend his client without the translations.

But following a hearing on the matter in December, the Pre-Trial Chamber decided unanimously that the request was not valid, judge Prak Kim San announced Friday.

The judges found no obligations stated in the rules of the tribunal that required translation, he said, noting limited resources as well as a time limit for the courts.

Khieu Samphan’s Cambodian attorney, Sar Savan, said the decision was unacceptable, though it was met with approval by both prosecutors and lawyers for civil parties in the case.

Khieu Samphan, 77, was arrested in November 2007, and his detention has already been extended for a year.

KRouge court rejects leader's translation appeal

Saturday, February 21, 2009

PHNOM PENH (AFP) — Lawyers for former Khmer Rouge head of state Khieu Samphan Friday lost an appeal at Cambodia's UN-backed genocide tribunal to have his case file translated into French for his famed attorney.

The genocidal regime's leader and his lawyers have argued that in the absence of the translation of the documents into French -- one of the court's three official languages -- Khieu Samphan would not have a fair trial.

Khieu Samphan, 77, is being defended by famed French lawyer Jacques Verges, who has acted for some of the world's most infamous figures including Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie and Venezuelan terrorist "Carlos the Jackal".

Judge Prak Kimsan, head of the tribunal's pre-trial chamber, said Friday that the "appeal is inadmissible" because the court's rules do not provide for appeals relating to translation issues.

The judge also said that the defence team already had legal assistants who understand the languages used by the hybrid international-Cambodian court, which was set up in 2006 after years of haggling with the United Nations.

Verges, who is representing Khieu Samphan along with Cambodian lawyer Sa Sovan, said during an appeal hearing last December that only 2.5 percent of the 60,000-page case file had been translated.

Sa Sovan said he was "very regretful" at the ruling.

"The suspect's rights have been violated. So there is no justice at this court," the lawyer said.

But the prosecution welcomed the decision, with Cambodian co-prosecutor Chea Leang saying it was "very important" to make proceedings move forward quickly.

Khieu Samphan is one of five Khmer Rouge leaders who have been detained by the court on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity under the ultra-communist Khmer Rouge's brutal 1975-1979 regime.

He went before the court for the first time in April last year to appeal against his pre-trial detention.

The judges adjourned that 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.

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.

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.

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

You niyeay Français? Khieu Samphan stops cooperating unless thousands-page evidence against him is translated into French

Khmer Rouge leader halts Cambodia genocide court cooperation: report

PHNOM PENH (AFP) — The French lawyer defending Khmer Rouge leader Khieu Samphan at Cambodia's genocide tribunal has said his client will no longer co-operate with the UN-backed court, a report said Wednesday.

Jacques Verges, nicknamed "the Devil's advocate" for his defence of some of the world's most notorious criminals, said Khieu Samphan would not speak to court officials until thousands of pages of evidence against him is translated into French.

"In a trial, there is a human being and this human being is fighting," Verges was quoted as telling the English-language Cambodia Daily.

He also told the paper that without a translation of the court documents, which are in English, he would not be able to adequately defend his client.

Verges, a fierce anti-colonialist, reportedly befriended Khieu Samphan and other future Khmer Rouge leaders while at university in Paris in the 1950s.

In a long career, he has acted for Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie and Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, better known as Carlos the Jackal.

Tribunal co-investigating judge Marcel Lemonde told AFP that other suspects detained by the UN-backed court have also invoked their right "to remain silent at every stage of the proceedings."

But he said this would not hamper the court's investigation into their alleged crimes.

"We have to organise the investigation differently, that's it," he said in an email.

So far five people have been detained by the tribunal, including former Khmer Rouge ideologue Nuon Chea, the most senior surviving leader of the 1975-79 regime which oversaw one of the worst chapters of the 20th century.

Up to two million people died of starvation and overwork, or were executed by the communist Khmer Rouge, which dismantled modern Cambodian society in its effort to forge a radical agrarian utopia.

Cities were emptied, their populations exiled to vast collective farms, while schools were closed, religion banned and the educated classes targeted for extermination.