Duch: co-prosecutors sharpen their pencils

Cambodge Soir

10-09-2008

In disagreement with the co-investigating judges’ closing order, co-prosecutors request their appeal be examined on the basis of written briefs.

This proceeded quickly, as co-prosecutors filed on Friday, September 5, five days before the deadline, their appeal brief of the co-investigating judges’ closing order regarding Duch’s case.

They also requested that the pre-trial chamber decision should be announced “in written briefs, without requesting any hearings”. They also expect their appeal and the briefs filed by each party to be posted on the Khmer rouge Tribunal (KRT) website.

This appeal followed the closing order of the co-investigating judges, Marcel Lemonde and You Bunleng, on Duch, the former head of S-21 detention centre, dated August 8, for “crimes against humanity” and “serious breaches of the Geneva Convention dated August 12, 1949’’. The co-prosecutors argued that the closing order omitted accusations regarding breaches of the Cambodian Penal Code from 1956 which “could highlight Duch’s criminal demeanour and [...] strengthen the Cambodian people’s feelings that this trial is theirs”.