In response to criticism that it was not allowing for transparency, judges have posted old filings.

INVESTIGATING judges at Cambodia's war crimes court have made several old documents public in response to criticisms last month that their office was not maximising transparency at the court.

The documents, all of which relate to the legal doctrine of "joint criminal enterprise", were placed on the court's official website Thursday along with a number of other documents filed at the court.  

In a press release the same day, judges said the documents were made public "with the aim of improving public information while respecting the protection of privacy and the presumption of innocence", and that there would be more available in the future.

Response to criticism

 Last month, judges threatened lawyers for former leader Ieng Sary with sanctions if they did not remove documents, most of them marked "public", from their website.  

In response, the lawyers accused judges of using the court's confidentiality rules to deliberately suppress documents, saying the public had the right to be informed of every step the court makes.

Michael Karnavas, a co-lawyer for Ieng Sary, said the judge's most recent response was a case of "too little, too late".

"Obviously, the [Office of Co-Investigating Judges] fails to grasp the essence of transparency," he told the Post via email.

"When you see what is now being made public, one has to question their reasoning for keeping these submissions hidden from public scrutiny. Also, why has the OCIJ not moved to make truly non-confidential submissions public?" he added.