Ex-Khmer Rouge leader continues bid to be freed from jail

The Associated Press ,  Phnom Penh   |  Thu, 07/03/2008 5:57 PM  |  World

Cambodia's genocide tribunal was wrapping up a hearing Thursday into the former Khmer Rouge
foreign minister's request to be released ahead of trial, with his lawyers arguing that his royal pardon exempts him from prosecution.

Ieng Sary is one of five former senior Khmer Rouge officials being held by Cambodia's genocide tribunal, which is attempting to establish accountability for an estimated 1.7 million deaths under the communist group's rule from 1975 to 1979.

Lawyers defending Ieng Sary argued Wednesday that a 12-year-old royal pardon exempts him from further action, but the prosecution said the pardon was improper and should be scrapped.

The United Nations-assisted court has charged 82-year-old Ieng Sary with crimes against humanity and war crimes. He was condemned to death by a tribunal under a communist government that was installed in Cambodia by Vietnamese troops after they toppled the Khmer Rouge regime in 1979. That tribunal was a show trial with no real effort to present a defense.

The hearing on Ieng Sary's appeals against detention, which began Monday, was expected to wrap up Thursday, Helen Jarvis, the tribunal's public affairs chief said.

She said it might take several weeks before the five judges of the tribunal's pretrial chamber issue their ruling because of the complexity of the case.

Observers said the issue of pardon is presenting a tough test for the judges when they retreat to consider arguments by the prosecution and the defense.

"The court is facing a real dilemma," said Lao Mong Hay, a senior researcher with the Hong Kong-based Human Rights Commission.

He said that if the judges validate the pardon, Ieng Sary could walk free and that would turn the tribunal, which took several years to negotiate and establish, into a meaningless effort.

"Then what will be the meaning of the trial? Ha, ha! What will be the meaning of justice? Any justice at all?" he said in a telephone interview from his office in Hong Kong. "And how about
the laborious work to get Ieng Sary prosecuted during the process to establish that tribunal? That would become useless."

Former Cambodian King Norodom Sihanouk pardoned Ieng Sary in 1996 as a reward for leading some Khmer Rouge to surrender and join the government, a move that foreshadowed the Khmer Rouge's collapse in 1999, bringing an end to the civil war.

"When you look at Ieng Sary today, in spite of the past history, the royal decree ... was not given lightly. They (the government and former king) recognize him as an agent of peace, as someone who would be able to stop the war, and that's why it was granted," said Michael Karnavas, an American defense lawyer.

Prosecutors must "prove that there is a well-founded reason that the royal pardon and amnesty shall not be upheld," said Ang Udom, Ieng Sary's Cambodian lawyer.

Prosecutor Yet Chakriya asked the court to nullify the pardon since under Cambodian law convicts must serve two-thirds of their sentences before pardons can be granted.

But Ieng Sary "has never served his sentence, not even a single day," said Yet Chakriya, urging the court "to stop the culture of impunity enjoyed by the leaders of the country who had committed serious crimes" against their own people. (**)

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