KR tribunal

The Khmer Rouge tribunal Co-Prosecutors and Ieng Sary defence team have requested the Trial Chamber consider the format of Case 002, which has been split into a series of separate trials. A severance order was issued two weeks ago, splitting Case 002 into several parts to ensure expediency.

However, the Co-Prosecutors said exclusion of certain criminal acts from the first trial against the four elderly Khmer Rouge suspects, such as security centres and execution sites, would remove from that trial the “massive scale of the crimes and the extreme seriousness of the alleged criminal behaviour of the accused”.

“We share the Trial Chamber judges grave concern in ensuring an expeditious trial and we fully accept that the indictment has to be severed,” International Co-Prosecutor Andrew Cayley said by email yesterday.

“We are just asking the Trial Chamber that the parties should be heard on which criminal episodes should be addressed in the trial,” he said. Ieng Sary’s defence team yesterday filed conditional support for the Co-Prosecutor’s request. BRIDGET DI CERTO