Duch trial ends with a twist

“Do I infer that the accused is seeking an acquittal?” asked Judge Cartwright.

“I did say that. Release means an acquittal,” responded Cambodian defence counsel Kar Savuth.

These were the final words in the trial of Kaing Guek Eav, a.k.a. Duch, the former head of the Khmer Rouge detention and torture centre S-21. They signalled the implosion of Duch’s defence team after an eight month trial during which it had appeared to be the most well-prepared and cohesive party by far.

9 December 2009
By Thierry Cruvellier
International Justice Tribune

At the last possible moment, during closing arguments last month, the Cambodian co-counsel asked for his client to be released, arguing that the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) lacked jurisdiction to try Duch since he had never been a senior leader of the Khmer Rouge regime.

This was a complete reversal from what had been the defence line for more than two years under French co-counsel François Roux. Under Roux’s guidance, Duch had pleaded guilty, apologized to his victims and said that he would accept the harshest sentence for his crimes.

But he is now asking to be acquitted, openly siding with his Cambodian lawyer against his French one. In a final twist, the defence team effectively destroyed itself, without any help from the prosecution.

“We were as surprised as everyone,” said acting Chief Prosecutor William Smith at a press conference after the hearing.

“Throughout the case we have said that the accused’s remorse and cooperation were limited. The fact that it ended [this way] reinforces my position that his remorse is limited.”

Civil parties, who had consistently expressed their doubts about the sincerity of Duch’s remorse and full cooperation, also felt vindicated by the accused’s u-turn.

“This was a slap in the face of the victims of the regime,” said one of their lawyers, Silke Studzinsky. “The door is now closed,” she added, while one of her colleagues said he still preferred that it “remained ajar.”

Despite the actions of his Cambodian co-counsel, Roux has nevertheless remained on board - at least for the time being.

In an interview with online newspaper Ka-Set, Roux noted that his co-counsel’s position echoed the Cambodian government’s desire not to prosecute any suspects other than the four members of the Khmer Rouge leadership awaiting trial before the ECCC in 2011.

“The message [being sent] to the three Cambodian judges is far from neutral,” he said.

“I may be wrong in my interpretation but I am not off the subject when I hear [Cambodian Prime Minister] Hun Sen say: ‘I don’t want more’, when I know that [Cambodian prosecutor] Chea Leang does not want more and when Kar Savuth says ‘There mustn’t be more’…If this is what is meant to be acknowledged, then Duch is not involved,” Roux said.

“To witness such collapse at the end of the Duch trial is to send a very strong message: ‘Your tribunal is not ours’,” Roux concluded.

Following the hearing, Smith told reporters that “the collaboration between Cambodians and non-Cambodians is one of the greatest successes of this court.”
Roux, however, disagrees and says that it is precisely this peculiar feature of the ECCC - where at every level a Cambodian national shares responsibilities with an international counterpart - that led to such an undesirable situation.

“A detainee is always in his lawyers’ hands. It is an impossible situation for him when he has two lawyers who say two different things.”

For two months the international co-investigating judge has also been dealing with an uncomfortable conflict with his Cambodian colleague. Last week was the turn of the defence. Tomorrow, it may well be the turn of the trial judges.

Shock Khmer Rouge plea highlights political battle

Sunday, November 29, 2009
By Didier Lauras
AFP

PHNOM PENH — A last-minute bid for release by Khmer Rouge jail chief Duch has underscored deep rifts between foreign and Cambodian staff that threaten the UN-backed court, officials and diplomats said.

Duch's defence strategy imploded on the final day of his trial Friday, when he suddenly demanded his release after months of admitting responsibility. Then his international and local lawyers put forward opposing arguments.

French counsel Francois Roux asked judges to consider Duch's remorse in a bid to reduce a possible 40-year sentence. But his Cambodian colleague Kar Savuth said the court was not competent to hold the trial.

"There are, in Cambodia, a number of people who do not want this court," Roux told AFP, hinting that the strategy of his colleague, the lawyer of Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, was motivated by political objectives.

The same criticism has been heard from prosecutors, judges and diplomats since the tribunal was created in 2006 as a final chance for justice for victims of the communist regime that killed up to two million people in the late 1970s.

Cambodian and international prosecutors have openly disagreed whether the court should pursue more suspects, while the Cambodian investigating judge has refused to summon high-ranking government officials as witnesses.

Hun Sen himself said in March that he would "prefer for this court to fail" than see further prosecutions that could stoke civil strife.

Asked recently about the possibility of opening further cases, a senior government official told AFP: "These are decisions taken by people who understand nothing about Cambodia."

The disharmony predated the court's creation, recalls David Scheffer, a former US ambassador who took part in the lengthy negotiations to set up the tribunal.

"This is what's unique about it. But that does not mean it is not workable. We just need to accept that there is a certain amount of discord," Scheffer said.

The issues run deep. How many former Khmer Rouge cadres should be brought to trial? Who should the witnesses be?

And how to attribute blame when several senior regime members are back in positions of influence -- not least Hun Sen, who defected in 1977 to join Vietnamese-backed anti-Khmer Rouge forces?

"The former Khmer Rouge people are not only in the jungle. They are in power now," said Thun Saray, the head of ADHOC, a Cambodian human rights organisation.

Unlike other international tribunals, the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia functions under local laws, with the United Nations playing only a supporting role.

"The UN are invited here, we have a very weak mandate," said Knut Rosandhaug, the court's deputy director for administration.

"We have a parallel structure with a dual management. There are two bosses in each and every office," the Norwegian said.

"This is OK if the two brains think the same but if they don't, it can get sometimes complicated to make it work."

The 67-year-old Duch -- a former mathematics teacher whose real name is Kaing Guek Eav -- is accused of overseeing the deaths of 15,000 people at a notorious torture centre. He is set to be sentenced by March 2010.

In its second case, the court is due to deal with four detained senior Khmer Rouge leaders including the regime's "Brother Number Two", Nuon Chea. All protest their innocence and their lawyers are gearing up to fight hard.

Further cases involving five suspects who are under preliminary investigation have barely begun.

More than ever, said Scheffer, it is the Cambodians who are in control.

"It's up to the Cambodian society to decide who to reach beyond these (five) people," he said.

Kar Savuth told the court last week that "only the senior leaders of the Khmer Rouge regime and those most responsible would be brought to trial".

He then reeled off a list of 14 people, 11 of whom are dead.

Duch Defence Pushes Self-Destruct Button

Acting international co-prosecutor William Smith (left) and national co-prosecutor Chea Leang (right) address a press conference at the end of the Duch trial on Friday. Credit:Robert Carmichael/IPS

Analysis by Robert Carmichael

PHNOM PENH, Nov 28 (IPS) - "I would ask the chamber to release me. Thank you."

Those were the final words spoken by 67-year-old war crimes defendant, Kaing Guek Eav, better known as ‘Comrade Duch’, on Friday at the end of his 77-day trial in front of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC).

To anyone following the trial, his request was staggering—it represented a complete change of defence direction at the last minute. Additionally, the legal reasoning behind the request was fatally flawed.

It stunned the court, the audience and trial observers: Here was a man, whose defence strategy had been built on contrition and accepting responsibility for his role in the deaths of thousands, telling the court in its final hour that international law does not apply and that he should not be on trial in the first place.

Duch’s request provided an extraordinary conclusion to the trial of the Khmer Rouge’s former chief executioner, the first person to be brought to book in an international court for complicity in the deaths of some two million Cambodians between 1975 and 1979.

Sentence will be handed down early next year, with a maximum term of life imprisonment since there is no death penalty in Cambodia.

Duch’s closing words demolished a carefully crafted defence that was built up over nine months. In the face of overwhelming evidence of Duch’s guilt, the defence’s argument was that Duch accepted responsibility for the deaths of more than 12,000 people at S-21 prison, and in return for showing contrition and cooperation would receive a reduction in jail time.

But if the week started well for the defence, it began to unravel on Wednesday. Duch’s final statement on Friday came two days after a rambling and legally flawed argument by his Cambodian defence lawyer, Kar Savuth, that the court had no jurisdiction over his client and that international criminal law did not apply since, among other things, Duch had only been following orders.

Other than the obvious legal flaws in Kar Savuth’s arguments, his pleading raised eyebrows, since it ran entirely counter to the nine-months-old argument put forward by Duch’s international lawyer, Francois Roux. It revealed a significant split in the defence.

And if the prosecution was understandably outraged by the defence tactic—it accused the defence of "riding two horses"—most other people were confused. As Wednesday closed, few were quite able to work out what was going on. On reflection Kar Savuth’s argument led the way for him to undermine the nine months of strategy put together by his defence teammate Roux—that of accepting responsibility, showing contrition and claiming to be following orders for fear of his own life.

Roux was as taken aback by the last-minute change in plea as everyone else. He told the court on Thursday that Kar Savuth’s pleading the previous day had necessitated a complete rewriting of Roux’s own approach. Roux told the court the two men had "disagreements" over the approach to the case. He went on to say that "of course" Duch was guilty, and that it was clear that international law applied.

Roux’s lack of awareness may seem unlikely, but is easily explained by the arrangement of the ECCC. As a joint United Nations-Cambodian body, the court has a dual structure in which every organ has an international component and a Cambodian one.

That is the case for the defence too—Duch has two lead lawyers: Roux on the international side, and Kar Savuth as his Cambodian counsel. Both lawyers have equal standing with the court, a design that has been shown up in the trial’s final week.

Roux knew from the start that Duch had no chance of trying to convince the court that he was not guilty, since his signature was on thousands of executions, he had run S-21, and he had admitted responsibility.

It made the task of the defence one of mitigation. In a court that has no death penalty, the most severe sanction would be life in jail. Roux reasoned that an effectively guilty plea, contrition and expressions of remorse were his 67-year-old client’s best chance of one day living as a free man.

Throughout the 77 days of tribunal hearings, that was the defence Roux painstakingly assembled. And when the prosecution and lawyers for civil parties—mainly the relatives of those who were murdered on Duch’s instruction at S-21—charged that Duch was simply shedding crocodile tears and was not genuinely sorry, Roux railed at them, saying they were not giving his client a chance "to regain his humanity."

As the trial drew to a close this week, the defence was widely seen to have done a good job for its client. The prosecution called for a 45-year sentence, with five years off for time already served and for showing some contrition and limited cooperation with the court.

For Francois Roux, this last defence case of his professional life seemed to be heading to a predictable end: Duch effectively pleads guilty and benefits from a reduction in sentence.

That changed on Wednesday afternoon, when Kar Savuth stood up and with Duch’s blessing, told the court that his client should not even be on trial.

Quite why Duch chose to go along with a strategy that could well see him go to jail for the full 40-year term is unclear. After all, Roux’s approach offered his best chance that he could get somewhat less than that.

But whatever the reasons—and we may never know what they are—many Cambodians and the civil parties themselves were less surprised. Roux had asked the court to believe that a man—even one such as Duch—has the capacity to change and to return to humanity.

In Duch’s case that capacity appears lacking.

Duch in surprise call for his acquittal and release as trial ends

Nov 27, 2009
DPA

Phnom Penh - Cambodia's war crimes tribunal concluded its final week on Friday with war crimes suspect Comrade Duch asking judges to acquit him and release him when they hand down judgement early next year.

'I would like the chamber to release me,' Duch told the court, in a move that stunned observers.

Until now, a key plank of the defence's strategy has been to get Duch to take responsibility for his crimes and show remorse in the hope of getting a reduced sentence.

Duch, whose real name is Kaing Guek Eav, ran S-21, the Khmer Rouge's most notorious prison where thousands of perceived enemies of the regime were tortured and murdered between 1975-79. Duch has admitted his complicity in ordering the tortures and executions of more than 12,000 people at S-21 prison.

Duch's national defence counsel, Kar Savuth, then told the court his client should go free since he was not a senior leader of the Khmer Rouge and had merely followed orders issued by the movement's leaders.

'He was not one of those most responsible - the Communist Party of Kampuchea [was responsible and] should be prosecuted, not those under duress,' Kar Savuth said.

'That's why my client has asked to be released,' Kar Savuth concluded.

Legal observers said Kar Savuth's statements that Duch was simply following orders ran counter to international law, which does not recognize that as a defence.

It was a remarkable end to a trial whose closing days revealed a significant divide in the defence, with Duch's national lawyer advancing a legal argument utterly at odds with that of Duch's international defence lawyer, Francois Roux.

On Friday the judges insisted that the defence lay out a single position and tell the joint UN-Cambodian tribunal that it was either seeking Duch's acquittal, or that it wanted the court to reduce an expected lengthy sentence on the grounds that Duch has shown cooperation, remorse and spent five years in illegal pre-trial detention.

'I did say that [he should be acquitted], because release means acquittal,' Kar Savuth eventually told the bench.

It was a remarkable turn of events that led international co-prosecutor William Smith to tell a press conference Friday that the prosecution would have discussed a harsher sentence request than the 40 years it sought Wednesday had it known Duch would seek to have himself acquitted.

Earlier Friday Smith pleaded with the court to hand down the maximum sentence sought by the prosecution.

'We implore you that you do not come back with a sentence of less than 40 years,' Smith told the court.

Duch is 67, so the prosecution's demand would effectively translate to life in prison. There is no death penalty in Cambodia.

Witnesses at the 72-day hearing this year have told how some prisoners at S-21 had their blood entirely drained, while others suffered simulated drowning, electrocution and beatings. Very few prisoners sent to S-21 survived.

Four senior surviving Khmer Rouge leaders are currently in jail and awaiting trial.

The Khmer Rouge ruled Cambodia between 1975 and 1979 before being forced out of power by neighbouring Vietnam. Around 2 million people died of starvation and disease or were executed under the radical regime.

Duch Team at Odds in Final Remarks

Left to Right: Kar Savuth, François Roux and Duch

By Kong Sothanarith, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
26 November 2009

The French defense attorney for Kaing Kek Iev told Khmer Rouge tribunal judges Thursday he was in disagreement with his Cambodian colleague over whether the court should drop two atrocity crimes charges against the former prison chief know better as Duch.

Instead, Francois Roux, in his final arguments to the UN-backed court, said he would rather see a prison sentence shortened for Duch, who is accused of killing more than 12,000 people as administrator for one of the Khmer Rouge’s most notorious prisons, Tuol Sleng.

International prosecutors have called for at least 40 years of imprisonment for war crimes, crimes against humanity, murder and torture.

Roux’s statement Thursday was at odds with arguments from Duch’s Cambodian attorney, Kar Savuth, who said Wednesday the charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity for his client should be dropped.

Kar Savuth told the court the prison chief, now 67, had been trapped under a revolutionary hierarchy led by Pol Pot, security chief Son Sen and Nuon Chea. (Nuon Chea, the regime’s chief ideologue, is currently awaiting his own trial at the UN-backed court, along with three other senior leaders of the regime, under whom as many as 2 million Cambodians died in less than four years.)

“Duch did not commit crimes against humanity or war crimes,” Kar Savuth told the court. “Please, Trial Chamber, drop these charges.”

There were 195 other prison chiefs like Duch, he said.

“The disaster within and without [the Khmer Rouge cadre] was really the sole responsibility of the Cambodian communist party,” Duch told the court in his own concluding remarks. “I promise in any case in the future, I will do everything for the need of my people. Please the court, take this under consideration and decide on this matter.”

Prosecutors, meanwhile, have urged the court to hand down heavy punishment, due to the scale of the crimes.

“The crime for which he is being sentenced is a grave crime, which was against numerous people,” Cambodian prosecutor Chea Leang told the court Tuesday. “It is simply understood that nothing can replace the sentencing of him for a very long time in jail.”

Tuol Sleng prison, known to the Khmer Rouge as S-21, was the most serious of all the regime’s detention centers, and as its head, Duch intentionally tortured prisoners and sentenced them to inhumane deaths, she said.

The week brought to a close the first-ever trial for the hybrid tribunal, which has struggled since its inception in 2006 and is now facing a second, more complicated trial, for Noun Chea and other leaders.

The Trial Chamber will now begin consideration of a verdict in Duch’s case, though that decision is not expected until early 2010.

Duch's defence in disarray as closing arguments conclude

Thu, 26 Nov 2009
DPA

Phnom Penh - The defence in Cambodia's war crimes tribunal showed signs of falling apart Thursday as the trial of former Khmer Rouge prison camp commander Comrade Duch entered its scheduled final day. Duch's international defence lawyer Francois Roux, in his last appearance as a defence lawyer before taking up a position at the UN's Special Tribunal for Lebanon, told the court that the closing arguments advanced on Wednesday by his Cambodian defence counterpart, Kar Savuth, had undermined Roux's own planned closing statement.

"We have had to revise the entire plan of our pleadings after Mr Kar Savuth's pleading yesterday afternoon," Roux said in his opening remarks at the joint UN-Cambodian tribunal in Phnom Penh.

Roux told the court there had been "disagreements" within the defence team.

On Wednesday Kar Savuth told the tribunal that Duch, who is charged with crimes against humanity, war crimes and crimes under Cambodian law, should be freed for a number of reasons, including his contention that international law did not apply and the statute of limitations under the Cambodian law had expired.

The defence's statements were part of its seven-hour closing argument in the trial of Duch, whose real name is Kaing Guek Eav. Duch ran S-21, the Khmer Rouge's most notorious prison.

Kar Savuth's argument followed yet another admission Wednesday by Duch accepting responsibility for the torture and murder of more than 12,000 people at the S-21 prison camp he ran in Phnom Penh between 1975-79.

Among Kar Savuth's arguments was that since Duch was following orders while allegedly living in fear of his life, he could not be prosecuted for ordering his subordinates to kill.

Some of Roux's comments Thursday were clearly at odds with his co-defence lawyer, including a outright repudiation of Kar Savuth's comments that international law does not apply.

But for much of the first two hours of his closing arguments, Roux lambasted the prosecution, not least its contention that Duch was at the centre of "a network of terror."

"I apologize in advance to the victims for what I am about to say," Roux told the court Thursday. "But how many people died at S-21? We know 12,380 ... and a total of 1.7 million in Cambodia. That means S-21 was responsible for less than 1 per cent of the deaths in Cambodia."

"And [the prosecution] is telling the chamber that Duch was at the centre of a network that bathed Cambodia in blood - how dare you?" Roux said.

On Wednesday the prosecution called on the tribunal to hand down a 40-year sentence to Duch. The prosecution acknowledged some mitigating factors, including that Duch had shown some cooperation and took limited responsibility for the crimes committed at S-21.

Duch is 67, so the prosecution's demand would effectively translate to life in prison.

Kar Savuth's arguments were described "an almost obscene immunization of a mass murderer" by David J Scheffer, a former US war crimes ambassador, who is attending the closing week of the trial.

Scheffer, a professor of law, said the defence argument "defies 65 years of international criminal law."

"If we accept his argument, it would vitiate the provisions of the [tribunal] law that there is no defence to superior orders," Scheffer said. "He ignores that completely."

Sentencing in Duch's trial is due to take place early next year. There is no death penalty in Cambodia, and he faces a maximum punishment of life in prison.

Witnesses at the 72-day hearing this year have told how some prisoners at S-21 had their blood entirely drained, while others suffered simulated drowning, electrocution and beatings. Very few prisoners sent to S-21 survived.

Four senior surviving Khmer Rouge leaders are currently in jail and awaiting trial.

The Khmer Rouge ruled Cambodia between 1975 and 1979 before being forced out of power by neighbouring Vietnam. Around 2 million people died of starvation and disease or were executed under the radical regime.

In Trial Remarks, Duch Apologizes to Victims

By Chun Sakada, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
31 March 2009

As Cambodia's first Khmer Rouge trial resumed Tuesday, its defendant, Duch, apologized for killing more than 15,000 people as head of Tuol Sleng prison, and he apologized to anyone who had made it through his killing machine.

"I would like to express my sorrow and great suffering for all kinds of crimes that were committed April 17, 1975, to Jan. 6, 1979," he said, referring to the period when the Khmer Rouge ran the country and when nearly 2 million people died.

As chief of Tuol Sleng, a prison known as S-21 to the Khmer Rouge, Duch oversaw the torture and execution of up 16,000 people. He also oversaw a mass grave site where the bodies of the executed were buried, on the outskirts of Phnom Penh.

"For the crimes in S-21, I would like to recognize my responsibility under the law," Duch said in a clear, strong voice Tuesday. "More importantly, for the acts of torture and killing, I would like to apologize to the witnesses who are still alive, and I would like to apologize to the families of the victims who died at S-21."

Only a handful of people survived the prison. One of them was Bu Meng, who had been a civil servant for the Lon Nol regime and spent nearly three years there.

Now 68, Bu Meng has closely followed Duch's trial. He told VOA Khmer that Tuesday's apology was not enough to assuage the mental anguish caused by his time in the prison.

"I need justice from the courts to try Duch," he said.

Y Lay Theng, 62, an audience member watching Tuesday's proceedings, said Duch had made "serious mistakes" as a member of the Khmer Rouge. "So the court of law will not allow him to be freed from the charges." The apology was unlikely to have an effect on the outcome of the trial, he said.

Duch's Cambodian attorney, Kar Savuth, told the court Tuesday that 14 top Khmer Rouge leaders were responsible for serious crimes and violence under the regime, but Duch was not one of them.

"Among the 14, there is no name 'Kaing Kek Iev,'" he said. "So: the person other than these 14 gets to be tried. This violates the one article of the law on the establishment of the [tribunal]."

The tribunal is tasked with trying the senior-most leaders of the regime, and is currently holding only four of its top leaders: ideologue Nuon Chea, head of state Khieu Samphan, foreign minister Ieng Sary and social affairs minister Ieng Thirith.

Duch was the head of what has become a well-known prison, now converted into a torture museum, but researchers point out there were 197 other such prisons under the Khmer Rouge.

Duch said Tuesday he was willing to cooperate closely with the tribunal and would answer "all questions" from judges, prosecutors and civil parties.

“Duch must not be sentenced”: Kar Savuth, Duch’s lawyer

Kar Savuth (Photo: ALG, Cambodge Soir Hebdo)

30 March 2009
By Ky Soklim and Adrien le Gal
Cambodge Soir Hebdo
Translated from French by Luc Sâr
Click here to read the article in French

According to the Cambodian defense lawyer of the former S-21 boss whose trial is opening on Monday 20 March, it is “impossible” that a sentence could be handed down to his client.

Cambodge Soir Hebdo: How is your client feeling?

Kar Savuth: When his trial started, Duch was very happy and he was not worried at all. He knows that if the tribunal is fair, he will be freed because he is not part of the high-ranking KR officials who should be the only ones to be tried by the KR Tribunal (KRT).

Is there still an uncertainty on the sentence that will be handed over to him?

It is possible that there will be sentence. It’s the law. Duch should not be in jail. He did not want to be the chief [of S-21], he wanted to do something else, but he was not allowed to. He told me clearly that he never wanted to be in charge of this place where people were being killed. Who wants to kill human beings? No one! But, what could he do? If he refused to obey the orders, he would have been killed also.

The civil parties want to re-open the investigation to determine if Duch was involved in forced marriages…

It’s too late, the investigations are closed. In any case, forced marriages were done everywhere under the KR regime. They should not accuse Duch who is only obeying his bosses.

You fought so that Duch is not charged with “participation in joint criminal enterprise”…

This charge is not right. In any case, there were 196 jails in the country. It is unfair to accuse Duch. In his center, 12,381 people died, whereas in other jails, more than 150,000 died… We seek justice. Duch is a scapegoat, others who killed are still roaming free.

You were Hun Sen’s lawyer… How do you get along with François Roux who, in France, defends civil disobedience followers?

François Roux and I, we have the same strategy. But, it is wrong to say that I defend only people close to power. I am interested in important affairs, and I defended the KR since 1982. Duch must have heard about me, and that’s why he chose me. The other people charged were also interested [in me], but we can only defend one of the accused.

As Cambodian, do you consider yourself a victim of the KR regime?

Yes, I am victim. But, I don’t have a grudge against Duch, nor the other four who were charged. I am not angry against the minor officials, I am angry against those who issued orders, i.e. Pol Pot. The others were only following orders.

Hor Namhong is “very angry”: Lawyer

Dam Sith’s lawyer calls on the court to question Ieng Sary

10 June 2008
By Duong Sokha
Ka-set
Unofficial translation from French by Tola Ek
Click here to read the original article in French
Click here to read the original article in Khmer

The defense lawyer for Dam Sith, the Editor-in-chief of the Moneaksekar Khmer (Khmer Conscience) newspaper who is temporarily detained since Sunday 08 June, following a lawsuit brought up by Hor Namhong for defamation and disinformation, does not want to stop there. The origin of his client’s arrest stemmed from his quoting of a speech given by opposition leader Sam Rainsy who declared that the government still includes former KR leaders, and Sam Rainsy went on to say that a minister of Foreign Affairs was the former leader of the Boeng Trabek camp under Pol pot. On Tuesday 10 June, lawyer Choung Choungy wrote to the prosecutor of the Phnom Penh municipal court, asking the latter to “summon Ieng Sary” to verify Hor Namhong’s statement given to the Rasmei Kampuchea newspaper on 23 April 2008, in which Hor Namhong claimed that he maintained close relationships with Ieng Sary, KR Brother No. 3, during the KR regime. In his letter, Choung Choungy said that, Ieng Sary being a former KR leader, will be able to clarify about Hor Namhong’s role in the Boeng Trabek detention camp between 1975 and 1979.

In a press conference held at his party headquarters on Tuesday 10 June, Sam Rainsy claimed Dam Sith’s innocence, and he also indicated his optimism about the upcoming release of his colleague “through numerous reactions from foreign countries, human rights organizations, and journalists associations in Cambodia.” The Cambodian Human Rights League deplored once again that justice in Cambodia makes use of the criminal code rather than the civil code in order to rain down on a journalist, and it is also concerned about the hostile atmosphere towards the opposition parties during this pre-election period.

Sam Rainsy insisted during the press conference that Dam Sith did not commit any error, he was only “reporting in his newspaper my words.” “Dam Sith should not be the one pursued, they should come after me!” Sam Rainsy said. He also said that it was “a political affair invented by the ruling party with the aim of distracting the attention of the voters from real pressing problems, such as land disputes and the current price inflation.” Sam Rainsy concluded by saying: “I accept to be sent to jail in exchange for Dam Sith’s release!”

When asked about this issue, Kar Savuth, Hor Namhong’s defense lawyer, stressed that his client is “very angry.” He said that: “To this day, no amicable negotiation took place. Now, [these accusations] dishonor my client, whom I am reminding, won a lawsuit [on the same issue] in France against former king Norodom Sihanouk. He has proofs of his innocence and also witnesses.”

Torture Chief Selects Lawyers

Mean Veasna, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
01 August 2007

The first man to be indicted by the Khmer Rouge tribunal, Kaing Khek Iev, has selected two lawyers to represent him in his trial, the courts said Wednesday.

The torture chief commonly known as Duch was questioned, charged and detained for crimes against humanity Tuesday, the first and only defendant so far in a tribunal for former leaders of the Khmer Rouge regime.

Under the tribunal rules, a defendant will have a foreign and Cambodian lawyer, just as he will face foreign and Cambodian investigators, prosecutors and judges.

Duch will be represented by his longtime attorney Kar Savuth and French lawyer Francois Roux. Duch selected the lawyers from a list provided by the tribunal courts, after he claiming he "does not have the means to pay for his lawyers," the tribunal said in a statement.

Roux "defended four cases of genocide at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda" and was a member of the defense team for Zacarias Moussaoui, who was tried for his part in the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in the US, the statement said.

Roux's application to the Cambodian Bar Association is now under consideration, and until it is approved he will not be able to speak to the court, the courts said. He will, however, act as appointed legal counsel to assist in the preparation of the case, the courts said.

The Cambodian Bar Association has made itself a sticking point over a functioning tribunal in the past, demanding high fees for foreign lawyers that nearly scuttled talks over the tribunal earlier this year.

Duch was the head of Tuol Sleng prison, where 16,000 people were executed between 1975 and 1979. He is the first to be indicted following the drafting of a list of five confidential suspects by prosecutors to be investigated by the courts.

US Embassy spokesman Jeff Daigle said Wednesday the US "strongly supports bringing to justice senior leaders" of the Khmer Rouge.

A Japanese Embassy official said Japan hoped the tribunal "will continue to proceed smoothly."

Khmer Rouge Official to Reveal Crimes

In this photo from the Cambodian Documentation Center shows Kaing Khek Iev, left, also know as Duch, and his aid Sok in Phnom Penh in 1976. Duch, who ordered the torture and killing of at least 14,000 men, women and children, in the late 1970's has been take to the Cambodian genocide tribunal headquarters Tuesday, July 31, 2007, to be questioned by judges. On July 18, 2007, prosecutors submitted to the investigating judges the cases of five former Khmer Rouge leaders recommended to stand trial. The names of the five suspects have not been revealed. (AP Photo/Documentation Center, File)

Wednesday, August 1, 2007
By KER MUNTHIT
The Associated Press

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia -- The former chief of a Khmer Rouge prison is willing to testify about the communist regime's atrocities that led to an estimated 1.7 million deaths in the 1970s, Cambodia's genocide tribunal announced Wednesday.

Duch, 64, also known as Kaing Guek Eav, on Tuesday became the first top Khmer Rouge figure to be indicted for offenses committed when the Khmer Rouge held power from 1975-79. He was charged and detained by order of the U.N.-backed international tribunal's foreign and Cambodian judges.

Duch headed the S-21 prison in Phnom Penh, where some 16,000 suspected enemies of the regime were tortured before being taken out and executed on what later became known as the "killing fields" near the city. Only about a dozen prisoners are thought to have survived. The site is now the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum.

The judges' detention order, posted on the tribunal's Web site Wednesday, said Duch had acknowledged that he headed S-21 and was "ready to reveal the crimes committed by the Khmer Rouge."

It also cited prosecutors' allegations that he presided over abuses against civilians including "arbitrary detention, torture and other inhumane acts, (and) mass executions."

"He is implicated by many documents and several witnesses," the detention order said.

The tribunal also announced that one of the two lawyers expected to defend Duch is Francois Roux, a human rights activist from France best known for being on the defense team of Zacarias Moussaoui, a Moroccan-born Frenchman convicted in the U.S. of conspiring to commit terrorism and kill Americans in connection with the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks.

Roux also defended four cases of genocide at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.

Duch, who said he could not afford to pay for legal representation, selected Roux and a Cambodian lawyer, Kar Savuth, from a list compiled by the tribunal. Kar Savuth has represented Duch for the past eight years while he was detained at a Phnom Penh military prison on separate war crimes charges.

The tribunal, officially known as Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, is expected to start conducting trials early next year.

Cambodia's holocaust saw as many as one-fifth of the country's citizens die as a result of the radical policies of the Khmer Rouge and their leader, Pol Pot.

Pol Pot died in 1998, but three of his senior-level colleagues are living freely in Cambodia, though in declining health: Nuon Chea, the movement's chief ideologue; Ieng Sary, the former foreign minister; and Khieu Samphan, the former head of state.

Prosecutors have recommended that five Khmer Rouge leaders be indicted, and all three are widely believed to be on their list, although no names besides Duch's have been released.

According to a transcript of a 1999 government interview obtained by The Associated Press, Duch said "Nuon Chea (also) had direct command over S-21."

"I was under other people's command, and I would have died if I disobeyed it. I did it without any pleasure, and any fault should be blamed on the (Khmer Rouge leadership), not me," he told the government interviewer soon after his arrest in May 1999. Prior to that he had spent decades under an assumed name.

Nuon Chea, the right-hand man to Pol Pot, has consistently denied any responsibility for the mass brutality.

"I was president of the National Assembly and had nothing to do with the operation of the government," he told the AP in an interview last month. "Sometimes I didn't know what they were doing because I was in the assembly."

"I will go to the court and don't care if people believe me or not," he said.

The judges' detention order for Duch cited prosecutors' allegations that "under his authority, countless abuses were allegedly committed against the civilian population."

The abuses included "arbitrary detention, torture and other inhumane acts, mass executions, which occurred within a political context of widespread or systematic abuses and constitute crimes against humanity," it said.

It said one of Duch's lawyers had challenged the detention on the basis "that the other suspects remain at liberty," and requested his client be released on bail.

The judges denied the request, saying granting him freedom could provoke public anger.

Duch's current provisional detention will last up to one year and can be extended for another year if the investigating judges uncover new crimes in which he was implicated, said tribunal spokesman Reach Sambath.

According to tribunal rules, the maximum penalty for conviction of crimes is life imprisonment.