Cambodia's KRouge court opens first public hearing

Cambodia's KRouge court opens first public hearing
48 minutes ago



PHNOM PENH (AFP) - Cambodia's Khmer Rouge court opened its first
public hearing Tuesday, in what many see as a landmark moment for a
country trying to overcome its brutal past.

Judges will hear an appeal by former regime prison chief Duch against
his detention by the UN-backed tribunal.

"This first hearing means so much," tribunal spokesman Reach Sambath
told AFP.

Lawyers for Kaing Guek Eav, whose revolutionary name was Duch, will
argue that years spent imprisoned without trial by another court are
grounds for his release, legal documents show, in what many see as a
key opening test of the tribunal's credibility.

Established in July 2006 after nearly a decade of tense negotiations
between Cambodia and the UN, the long-stalled tribunal seeks to
prosecute crimes committed 30 years ago by senior regime leaders.

But since it opened, corruption allegations and infighting between
judges have buffeted the court and raised fears of more delays.

With trials not expected until mid-2008, Tuesday's hearing has been
widely anticipated as a gauge of how well the court can begin
reconciling a nation with its distant, but brutal past.

"It is the first public test of professionalism and hence credibility
for the (tribunal)," said David Scheffer, a former US Ambassador at
Large for War Crimes Issues and a key negotiator in the tribunal's
creation.

"I am confident it can deal with the legal complexities of the cases
that come before it," he added.

Duch allegedly oversaw the torture and extermination of some 16,000
men, women and children at the Khmer Rouge's Tuol Sleng prison during
the regime's 1975-79 rule over Cambodia.

He was arrested by the tribunal in July -- the first top cadre to be
detained -- and charged with crimes against humanity pending further
investigation of the case against him.

In interviews with journalists in 1999 shortly before he was seized by
the government, Duch -- by then a born-again Christian discovered
working in refugee camps on the Thai border -- admitted to his role in
the Tuol Sleng atrocities and said he wanted to stand trial.

But Duch's lawyers say eight years spent in military prison prior to
his transfer to the tribunal violate Cambodian law, as well as
international legal standards, and should be reason for his immediate
release.

In extending Duch's pre-trial detention for a ninth year, tribunal
judges have "contributed to the excessive duration" of his
imprisonment, Duch's lawyers said in their appeal filed in September.

The judges acknowledged these concerns in their orders for Duch's
imprisonment, saying: "His continued provisional detention is
problematic in light of international standards of justice," according
to court documents issued at the time of his arrest.

But the judges also consider Duch, 65, a flight risk, and ordered him
detained "on the grounds that there are well-founded reasons to
believe that he participated in the crimes" committed by the Khmer
Rouge.

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
during its 1975-79 rule.

The Khmer Rouge also abolished money, religion and schools.

So far five top leaders have been detained by the tribunal. Former
head of state Khieu Samphan was arrested Monday.

Foreign minister Ieng Sary and his wife, former social affairs
minister Ieng Thirith were seized last week, while regime ideologue
Nuon Chea was arrested in September.
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