JUDGES at Cambodia’s war crimes tribunal have rebuffed a request from lawyers for former Khmer Rouge foreign minister Ieng Sary to disqualify Trial Chamber President Nil Nonn on the grounds that he allegedly admitted taking bribes as head of the Battambang provincial court in a 2002 interview with a documentary filmmaker. In a ruling dated yesterday, the court’s Pre-Trial Chamber said the disqualification request had to be raised before the Trial Chamber according to the court’s internal rules. “The co-lawyers have not demonstrated to the Pre-Trial Chamber that Judge Nonn’s pre-trial access to the case file … risks compromising the fairness of the pre-trial or trial proceedings”, the PTC judges said.