KRT: the five defendants will be allowed to communicate with each other

Cambodge Soir

02-10-2008

The Pre-Trial Chamber of the Khmer Rouge Tribunal supported Nuon Chea’s argument, who appealed the order of the co-investigating judges on 20 May.


Nuon Chea, Khieu Samphan, Duch, Ieng Sary and Ieng Thirith will be allowed to communicate with each other as much as they wish, decided the judges of the Pre-Trial Chamber of the KRT in a decision dating from the 26th of September.

“In the light of the case law of the International Criminal Court and of the European Court for Human Rights, the Pre-Trial Chamber decided that one can only restrict the contacts [between the defendants] in order to avoid pressure put on witnesses and victims, when there are sufficient proofs showing that there’s a serious risk for a defendant to collaborate with another in order to create such pressures during his detention”, announced the judges of the Pre-Trial Chamber.

“This risk, they continue, has necessarily decreased during the course of the investigation.”

The Pre-Trial Chamber has also taken into account the fact that the prisoners aren’t isolated from each other in the Cambodian prisons and that contacts between them are only restricted for practical reasons of surveillance.

For the moment, only Ieng Sary and Ieng Thirith obtained the right to communicate freely as the two defendants are married since 1951.

Under this circumstance, “it isn’t clear” that isolating the defendants from each other “protects the interests of the investigation”, states the Pre-Trial Chamber in its judgement.

Nuon Chea, who appealed the pre-trial order of the co-investigating judges on 20 May 2008, determining the conditions of detention, remains isolated from the other defendants since his arrest on 19 September 2007.