ZEENEWS.COMPhnom Penh, Feb 20: Lawyers for former Khmer Rouge head of state Khieu Samphan Friday lost an appeal at Cambodia's UN-backed genocide tribunal to have his case file translated into French for his famed attorney.
The genocidal regime's leader and his lawyers have argued that in the absence of the translation of the documents into French -- one of the court's three official languages – Khieu Samphan would not have a fair trial.
Khieu Samphan, 77, is being defended by famed French lawyer Jacques Verges, who has acted for some of the world's most infamous figures including Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie and Venezuelan terrorist "Carlos the Jackal".
Judge Prak Kimsan, head of the tribunal's pre-trial chamber, said today that the "appeal is inadmissible" because the court's rules do not provide for appeals relating to translation issues.
The judge also said that the defence team already had legal assistants who understand the languages used by the hybrid international-Cambodian court, which was set up in 2006 after years of haggling with the United Nations.
Verges, who is representing Khieu Samphan along with Cambodian lawyer Sa Sovan, said during an appeal hearing last December that only 2.5 per cent of the 60,000-page case file had been translated.
Bureau Report
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