Rupert Skilbeck, Officer-in-Charge of the ECCC's Defense Support Section, stepped down last week after two years on the job. Deputy Principal Defender Richard Rogers will fill in for him while the court searches for a replacement, according to court spokesman Peter Foster.

In an interview published in today's Cambodia Daily, Skilbeck said he will be assuming a new position with the Open Society Justice Initiative in New York.

He lamented that more details hadn't been addressed before the clock started ticking on the tribunal: "We had to learn and do that process through the first six-to-nine-month's set up of the court, which wasted quite a long time."

Yet even though he is leaving just before the first trials are expected to start, Skilbeck told the Daily he is pleased with the court's progress.

"Last month we had four-day legal arguments on the definition of amnesty and double jeopardy and pardons," he said, referring to Ieng Sary's pre-trial hearing. "That is no mean feat and that is the first time that's happened in Cambodia, and to be honest in many developing countries you would never see anything like that."

*Pictured: Rupert Skilbeck.