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Jun 06

2009

Defense lawyers allege stealing, bias and political interference at court

Posted by: Elena on Jun 06, 2009

Tagged in: Nuon Chea , ECCC

In a mini-scandal the Post has dubbed "Waterlilygate," defense attorneys for Nuon Chea are claiming they found a confidential document from their office floating in a lily pond outside the Khmer Rouge tribunal.

Lawyer Michiel Pestman told reporters Thursday that he believed the document had been stolen from the defense team's office. I was not able to attend the press conference where these allegations were made, but you can read the Post article here.

"We have no explanation," he said. "What we do know is that the documents should have been shredded. They were not, and they were most probably stolen from our office."

Apparently the document was a letter to recently-appointed Victim's Unit head Helen Jarvis. Pestman said it raised concerns about a 2006 open letter from the Leninist Party Faction that Jarvis had signed.

In the letter, Pestman said Jarvis appears to take "the position that as a member of that particular faction she does not have to obey the rule of law."

Nuon Chea's lawyers also reiterated at the press conference that they had been "reliably informed" national Co-Prosecutor Chea Leang has been directed by the government to obstruct additional prosecutions.

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If we can draw anything positive from the recent controversy surrounding the personnel change at the Victims Unit, it is that this brings the victims themselves more directly into the discussion at the ECCC. The actions of the VU will undoubtedly be the most lasting legacy of the Court. The debate about Dr. Jarvis' qualifications, her politics or her ethnicity go far beyond her as an individual. Rather, they go to the core of the ECCC's mission: who can best represent the interests of the Khmer Rouge victims? These were issues that perhaps should have been settled long before the Court opened its doors, but the conversation should be welcomed, nonetheless.

I propose the following solution: If the ECCC is serious about its mission, Dr. Jarvis should announce that she will hold the directorship of the Victims' Unit only until a thorough and competitive job search can be conducted, in which she is welcome to submit her name as a candidate, to ensure that the person who holds this crucial position is both highly qualified and free from the taint of political bias.

http://impossibleasflying.blogspot.com/2009/06/eccc-continues-to-miss-point.html

Jamie on June 12, 2009 Report