Ex-Khmer Rouge leader in bid to overturn conviction

PHNOM PENH • Lawyers for a former leader of Cambodia's notorious Khmer Rouge regime yesterday asked a United Nations-backed court to overturn a 2018 verdict against him in a genocide trial, arguing it had insufficient reason to conclude he was guilty.

The Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia had sentenced former Khmer Rouge president Khieu Samphan, 90, to life in prison for genocide against the Cham Muslim minority and Vietnamese people and for crimes against humanity.

Most of the estimated 1.7 million victims of the 1975-79 ultra-Maoist regime died of starvation, torture, exhaustion or disease in labour camps, or were bludgeoned to death during mass executions.

Guilty verdicts have so far been reached against three former top members of the regime, but several died while on trial or before indictments were made.

Khieu Samphan's defence team argued in a Phnom Penh court yesterday that the trial chamber had failed, in its verdict, to provide sufficient reasoning and violated its own legal framework.

Lawyer Kong Sam Onn told Supreme Court judges present at the hearing that they should dismiss the chamber's ruling.

"The judgment against Khieu Samphan has no legal effect, it should be null and void," the lawyer said, adding that the Khmer Rouge chief had been denied the right to a fair trial.

"If judges do not respect their own law, that's the end and that will be a failure."

Co-prosecutor Chea Leang defended the 2018 judgment, saying that evidence for the conviction was "extensive, diverse and compelling".

"The appellant was one of the key leaders... who committed cruel and barbarous crimes against his own people for his party's own political and ideological goals", Ms Chea Leang said.

REUTERS