Khmer Rouge Trial: Where is Jacques Vergès?

Kambol (Phnom Penh, Cambodia). 27/02/2009: Sa Sovan, co-lawyer for Khieu Samphan, during the press conference following the hearing of the pre-Trial Chamber at the ECCC. ©John Vink/ Magnum

Ka-set

By Stéphanie Gée

The pre-Trial Chamber of the Khmer Rouge Tribunal was due to examine on Friday February 27th an appeal filed by Khieu Samphan, former president of Democratic Kampuchea, against the extension of his provisional detention. The Court was scheduled to start one hour later than initially planned, a delay announced on the previous day and requested by the defence. The alleged reason: the plane of international co-lawyer, Jacques Vergès, would only land at 9am at the Pochentong airport in Phnom Penh. The hearing thus opened at 10am... but with no French lawyer on the defence side, while his client asked for an adjournment.

“The situation is unexpected,” explained Sa Sovan, the Cambodian co-lawyer for Khieu Samphan. He explained that his colleague was held up in Paris to stay with a relative – it was later found it was the director of his law office – who was rushed to hospital and was allegedly between life and death. The Cambodian lawyer handed the Court a medical certificate before continuing. He said he was unable to inform the Tribunal of the latest development, because he himself was advised by his colleague late in the afternoon on the previous day, “in other words, too late to notify the Tribunal” and even his client was apprised of the news only 30 minutes before the hearing started. Apologising to the ones attending the hearing, he also requested an adjournment until April 3rd.

“We were only notified yesterday of a one-hour delay of the hearing. So, where is the international co-lawyer?”, asked Belgian deputy co-Prosecutor, Vincent de Wilde d'Estmael, irked with the disruption. “In Paris, at the bedside of a relative who is in hospital,” Sa Sovan replied firmly. The deputy co-Prosecutor then expressed his surprise and questioned the seriousness of the state of the patient, who – according to him – reportedly fell in the stairs and fractured his neck of femur. “Was this really a serious enough reason to prevent [Jacques Vergès] from being here today?”

Shortly afterwards, Sa Sovan invited magistrates and lawyers to debate “as legal practitioners” and not to use the Court to discuss about vengeance. He carefully recalled that he had also lost relatives under the Khmer Rouge, “50 members of [his] family.” In addition, he pointed out the total imbalance of power in the court room. “I am faced with a great number of lawyers for the civil parties, while I am on my own.” He later hammered his point during a press conference, “That is not right. And their number [civil parties lawyers] is expected to increase in the future... I feel like I am a thief!”

After deliberating in camera, the judges decided to adjourn the hearing until April 3rd. The announcement sparked weary reactions in the court room. “At this rate, the trial is going to take 20 years,” a victim ranted, while a journalist ironically pointed out that the defence was bound to win in any case scenario. “The Court has accepted their request, so the defence wins extra time. If the Court had refused, it would have offered them a chance to cause a scandal.”

Ny Chandy, one of the lawyers for civil parties, noted in a press conference that this was not the first adjournment requested by Khieu Samphan's lawyers. He expressed his hope that they would stop doing that in the future, otherwise civil parties would call the Court to continue its proceedings, whether the international co-lawyer was there or not.