The Phnom Penh Post

Philippe Greciano, a French lawyer who joined the defence team for former Khmer Rouge head of state Khieu Samphan last year, says he is stepping down. Here is the statement from Mr. Greciano:

"Professor Philippe Gréciano completes mission of international counsel in the defense team of Mr. Khieu Samphan, former Khmer Rouge head of state. Specialist in criminal law and human rights, he brought his expertise to clarify the legal debate in the interests of truth and reconciliation for the Kingdom of Cambodia. The defense team thanks to the quality of his work and wish him continued success in its activities."

Khieu Samphan will continue to be represented by Cambodian lawyer Sa Sovan and the well-known (and famously provocative) French lawyer Jacques Verges. 

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For those in the capital, Meta House on Sothearos Blvd. will tonight be screening Facing Genocide, a documentary on former Khmer Rouge head of state Khieu Samphan filmed ahead of his arrest in 2007. Here's the synopsis from Meta House:

"Khieu Samphan was one of the closest collaborators of Pol Pot and the one the fronted the KR movement. He has succeeded in living his life without being held accountable for the Khmer Rouge crimes, until his arrest in 2007. Swedish filmmakers D. Aronowitsch & S. Lindberg have followed him two years before his arrest. FACING GENOCIDE (94 mins, 2010) is a search into the personality of Khieu Samphan. The film gives insight into his mindset and his close relation to Pol Pot. It is a unique story about an ex-leader, the time before his arrest and before he is put on trial. Film is presented by lawyer/book author Theary Seng, one of the film’s protagonists."

First of all, this blog has been down for the past few months and posts from earlier this year have been deleted due to some combination of the PPPost site being hacked and our transition to new software. We apologize for these difficulties, which we hope will not be repeated.

In tribunal news today, the court has announced the date of the initial hearing second case – featuring Khmer Rouge Brother No 2 Nuon Chea, head of state Khieu Samphan, foreign minister Ieng Sary and social action minister Ieng Thirith – will open on June 27. At this hearing, according to a document posted on the court’s website today, the parties will submit proposed witness lists and raise preliminary objections, and the lead civil party lawyers will offer initial specifications of the reparations awards they will be seeking in the case.

 So-called “substantive hearings”, featuring witness testimony and oral argument, are likely to begin in August.

In public hearings at the Khmer Rouge tribunal on Friday, the pre-trial chamber judges upheld the extension of pre-trial detention for Ieng Sary, Ieng Thirith and Khieu Samphan for a third year after their arrest in November 2007. You can read more about it here, or check out the court's own website to read the full text of the judges' rulings on Ieng Sary, Ieng Thirith and Khieu Samphan.

Ieng Sary appears at the court in February to appeal his pre-trial detention (ECCC Pool).

The tribunal announced this week that genocide charges had for the first time been brought against three regime leaders: Nuon Chea, Ieng Sary and Khieu Samphan.

The charges stem from the regime's treatment of Vietnamese and the Cham Muslim minority group.

Brother No 2 Nuon Chea and Ieng Sary, the regime's foreign minister, were informed of the charges during a meeting with investigating judges on Wednesday. Former head of state Khieu Samphan was informed Friday. A meeting with Ieng Thirith, former minister of social action, is scheduled for early next week.

My apologies for playing catch-up on this post. I am just returning from a trip to the provinces and was not around to cover two stories of note:

No. 1: On October 7, the tribunal made public six summons letters, dated September 25 and bearing the signature of International Co-Investigating Judge Marcel Lemonde, requesting that six government officials - Senate President Chea Sim, National Assembly President Heng Samrin, Foreign Minister Hor Namhong, Finance Minister Keat Chhon and two CPP senators – appear at the tribunal to provide testimony “in the framework of the investigation under way against Nuon Chea, Ieng Sary, Khieu Samphan and other leaders”.

The following day Prime Minister Hun Sen weighed in, saying the officials' testimony could prejudice the tribunal's second case. Speaking at Chaktomuk Theatre, he said: “These [officials] made the Pol Pot regime collapse, and they adopted the law on the Khmer Rouge tribunal, so if they go as witnesses, it would make the accused persons guilty. How is justice to be done? My main problem is that turning the plaintiffs into witnesses would doom the accused.”

Co-Investigating Judges at the tribunal denied a request Friday that they investigate allegations of corruption at the court. The request had been lodged by Nuon Chea's defense team, and was supported by two other defense teams.

The Co-Investigating Judges wrote that probing such allegations was outside their jurisdiction.

"Whilst reiterating their desire for an irreproachable Court, they noted that the primary condition for fair trials is that the judges themselves respect the Law, particularly the jurisdictional limits laid down by their founding documents," according to a release from the court. "Accordingly, they were obliged to note that they did not have jurisdiction, under the 27 October 2004 Law and Internal Rules, to conduct the action requested by the Defence."

In arguments both Thursday and Friday, lawyers debated the relevance of an altercation that took place between civil parties and Khieu Samphan's defense lawyers last December.

It was the first time hostilities at the court boiled over into public dissent -- and near violence. Angered by the provocative Jacques Verges, and his Cambodian co-lawyer Sa Sovan, Khmer Rouge victims began a shouting match. Sa, as civil party lawyer Silke Studzinksy pointed out Thursday, "did not have the necessary distance to calm the situation," and various parties had to be physically restrained.

To defense lawyers' dismay, attorneys for the civil parties have now argued that the clash proves defendants cannot be released on bail. Anger directed toward the Khmer Rouge is still too raw, they say.

For the second time this week, judges at the tribunal adjourned and rescheduled an appeal hearing. Khieu Samphan's appeal against extension of provisional detention, along with additional translation arguments, will be hashed out April 3.

Khieu requested the hearing be delayed because his infamous French lawyer, Jacques Verges, was unable to make it to court. The reason for his absence is somewhat unclear.

Thursday afternoon, the court notified journalists that Khieu's hearing would begin at 10 a.m. instead of 9 a.m. because Verges' flight had been delayed. But as the hearing opened Friday morning, Verges had not yet arrived.

* Khieu Samphan's lawyers lost an appeal Friday requesting that their client's entire case file be translated into French. Judges ruled that the appeal was inadmissible. While the court's translation rules allow for a number of primary documents to be translated, they do not require the translation of every document in a case file. Khieu's foreign lawyer, Jacques Verges, has continually argued that he cannot properly defend his client until the entire case file is translated into French.

* The Cambodian side of the tribunal is running out of money. According to local press reports, the court's Cambodian side could be bankrupt within the next few weeks. However, tribunal spokespeople remain confident that funding will come through.

* While the court's Cambodian side struggles financially, the UN side just received a pledge of $1.5-million from the United States. The U.S. made its first-ever donation to the court in September.