Nuon Chea: appeal dismissed

Cambodge Soir

29-08-2008

“Brother Number 2” lawyers request that some written records of the inquest of the procedure be removed.

Lawyers for the 90 year-old Khmer Rouge official requested in an appeal that some of the evidence of the co-investigating judges’ investigation should be deemed as void, based on the differences between Cambodia Law and the Khmer Rouge Tribunal’s (KRT) internal rules. The pre-trail chambers magistrates dismissed the request in a decision which cannot be appealed.

Among the evidence are written records of a hearing dated September 20, 2007. At that time Nuon Chea was only counselled by “one Cambodian Lawyer”, stated the defence which also recalled that the defence asked for more time to prepare this hearing. The extension was denied.

In December 2007, the lawyers of Nuon Chea, aka “Brother number 2” filed an application to quash the procedure acts. Their application was dismissed in January 2008 by the co-investigating judges. A month later the defence appealed the decision.

During the Pol Pot regime, Nuon Chea was a member of the Standing Committee of the Central Committee, before become Prime Minister of Democratic Kampuchea then President of the Democratic Kampuchean Assembly. He is accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity.