Tuesday, 22 April 2008

Khieu Samphan hires Vietnamese lawyer

Courtesy of Cambodia: Details are Sketchy
April 21, 2008

Jacques Verges, a.k.a Monsieur Guillotine because that’s were most of his clients tend to wind up, landed in Cambodia today on a mission to defend Khieu Samphan.

A French lawyer who defended terrorists and a former Nazi officer arrived in Cambodia on Monday to represent a former Khmer Rouge leader.

Jacques Verges declined to comment and only said “go to the court” before being whisked away in a car after his arrival at Phnom Penh International Airport.

Verges will join a Cambodian attorney to argue former Khmer Rouge leader Khieu Samphan’s appeal against his pretrial detention.

If nothing else, Monsieur Guillotine should liven up the activities out in Kambol. Save for the odd “heart attack” alarm, the proceeding so far have been rather uneventful. Verges has made a name for himself by defending the planet’s most vile criminals, often by employing outrageous claims and his trademark “attack the prosecution” style.

There’s this, too.

From the moment of his birth in 1925, in Thailand, Vergès had experienced racial hatred firsthand. His father, Raymond Vergès, a French doctor and a diplomat, had lost his job because he married a Vietnamese woman, something Frenchmen were simply not allowed to do in those days.

Boy, is he in for a surprise.

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