Dec 13, 2007
AFP
PHNOM PENH - DETAINED Khmer Rouge ministers Ieng Sary and his wife Ieng Thirith have appealed against their detention by a United Nations-backed tribunal in Cambodia, court officials said.
The pair were arrested last month and charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity. Since then they have been detained by the genocide tribunal for their alleged roles in the Khmer Rouge's brutal 1975-79 rule.
Tribunal spokesman Reach Sambath said lawyers for Ieng Sary, 82, and Ieng Thirith, 75, filed their appeals with the court on Wednesday.
'The court has already received their appeals,' Mr Reach Sambath said on Thursday.
Ieng Sary's lawyer Ang Udom said the appeal cited his client's fear that he could die in detention. 'We are worried about his health,' he told AFP.
The court earlier said that both Ieng Sary and his wife were flight risks, rejecting arguments that they were too frail to leave Cambodia.
The court also said their detention was necessary to prevent any acts of revenge by victims of the regime and any pressure being put on witnesses.
'What the court ruled is all wrong,' Mr Ang Udom said, insisting that Ieng Sary would not flee the country.
Ieng Thirith's lawyer Phat Pouv Seang said he submitted an appeal on the grounds that his client is 'mentally ill'. He declined to give more details on her health condition.
Ieng Sary and his wife have rejected the accusations against them.
Both have been widely implicated in the crimes committed by the Khmer Rouge during one of the 20th century's worst atrocities, including murder, extermination, imprisonment, enslavement and forced labour, court records said.
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.
The Khmer Rouge also abolished money, religion and schools.
Five former regime leaders have been detained so far by the tribunal.
Trials are now expected to begin in mid-2008.
The pair were arrested last month and charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity. Since then they have been detained by the genocide tribunal for their alleged roles in the Khmer Rouge's brutal 1975-79 rule.
Tribunal spokesman Reach Sambath said lawyers for Ieng Sary, 82, and Ieng Thirith, 75, filed their appeals with the court on Wednesday.
'The court has already received their appeals,' Mr Reach Sambath said on Thursday.
Ieng Sary's lawyer Ang Udom said the appeal cited his client's fear that he could die in detention. 'We are worried about his health,' he told AFP.
The court earlier said that both Ieng Sary and his wife were flight risks, rejecting arguments that they were too frail to leave Cambodia.
The court also said their detention was necessary to prevent any acts of revenge by victims of the regime and any pressure being put on witnesses.
'What the court ruled is all wrong,' Mr Ang Udom said, insisting that Ieng Sary would not flee the country.
Ieng Thirith's lawyer Phat Pouv Seang said he submitted an appeal on the grounds that his client is 'mentally ill'. He declined to give more details on her health condition.
Ieng Sary and his wife have rejected the accusations against them.
Both have been widely implicated in the crimes committed by the Khmer Rouge during one of the 20th century's worst atrocities, including murder, extermination, imprisonment, enslavement and forced labour, court records said.
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.
The Khmer Rouge also abolished money, religion and schools.
Five former regime leaders have been detained so far by the tribunal.
Trials are now expected to begin in mid-2008.
1 comment:
“The more odious and unpopular a crime is, the more necessary is it that its proof and its punishment should be surrounded by all the safeguards of public justice.”
The Times of London greeting the first Dreyfus trial
(Alfred Dreyfus, a captain in the French army, was convicted for treason in a secret military court-martial and was sentenced to life imprisonment on Devil’s Island, a penal colony located off the coast of South America. That was in 1894. In 1906, Dreyfus was found innocent.)
LAO Mong Hay, Hong Kong
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