The Phnom Penh Post
Written by Georgia Wilkins
Monday, 24 November 2008
JACQUES Verges, a lawyer for former Khmer Rouge leader Khieu Samphan, has accused Cambodia's UN-backed Khmer Rouge tribunal of engaging in "lynch mob justice", saying that he doubts his client's case will ever go to trial because the court has "gambled away its credibility and legitimacy", according to an interview by German news magazine Der Spiegel Friday.
"I'm not even sure that the trial in Phnom Penh will even take place," he said, in response to a hypothetical question about summoning former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger as a witness.
"It may be that the trial against Duch will begin soon, but not the trials against the other four prisoners.... [These cases] will not even come to trial because the tribunal in Phnom Penh has already gambled away its credibility and legitimacy," he said.
"[W]e find ourselves in a state of total illegality before the court in Phnom Penh. What is happening there borders on lynch mob justice," he added. He also accused tribunal prosecutors as being guilty of "dilettantism" in respect to their knowledge of the law.
Court spokesperson Reach Sambath assured the Post Sunday that Khieu Samphan's case was currently under investigation.
"The lawyers have a right to say what they want to ... I cannot criticise him," he said.
Written by Georgia Wilkins
Monday, 24 November 2008
JACQUES Verges, a lawyer for former Khmer Rouge leader Khieu Samphan, has accused Cambodia's UN-backed Khmer Rouge tribunal of engaging in "lynch mob justice", saying that he doubts his client's case will ever go to trial because the court has "gambled away its credibility and legitimacy", according to an interview by German news magazine Der Spiegel Friday.
"I'm not even sure that the trial in Phnom Penh will even take place," he said, in response to a hypothetical question about summoning former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger as a witness.
"It may be that the trial against Duch will begin soon, but not the trials against the other four prisoners.... [These cases] will not even come to trial because the tribunal in Phnom Penh has already gambled away its credibility and legitimacy," he said.
"[W]e find ourselves in a state of total illegality before the court in Phnom Penh. What is happening there borders on lynch mob justice," he added. He also accused tribunal prosecutors as being guilty of "dilettantism" in respect to their knowledge of the law.
Court spokesperson Reach Sambath assured the Post Sunday that Khieu Samphan's case was currently under investigation.
"The lawyers have a right to say what they want to ... I cannot criticise him," he said.
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