Making Sense of the Pre-Trial Chamber’s Second Decision on an Appeal About Alleged Political Interference

by Professor David Scheffer, Director of the Center for International Human Rights, Northwestern University School of Law
— 15 Sep, 2010

On September 9, 2010, the five-judge Pre-Trial Chamber (“PTC”) of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (“ECCC”) failed to achieve a super-majority vote (of four judges) for a finding of error in the earlier determination by the Co-Investigating Judges not to conclude that political interference had occurred in the pre-trial attempt by Nuon Chea and Ieng Sary to summon top government witnesses for testimony. (See my earlier blog, co-authored with Michael Saliba, entitled, The Authority of the Co-Investigating Judges to Call for Witness Testimony (October 13, 2009).) The two charged persons hoped to discover from such witnesses exculpatory evidence in their cases relating to the anticipated Trial 002, which may begin in 2011. The three Cambodian judges on the PTC dismissed the Appeal by the two charged persons, which means that, at least for the time being, the attempt to summon the six witnesses fails and some long- festering charges of political interference by the Cambodian Government in the work of the ECCC will not be further investigated by either the Co-Investigating Judges or the PTC…

Read more: ctm_blog_9-15-2010

Cambodia Tribunal Monitor’s Trial Observer posts are written according to the personal observations and opinions of the writer and do not constitute a transcript of ECCC proceedings or the views of Cambodia Tribunal Monitor and/or its partners. Official court transcripts for the ECCC’s hearings may be accessed at the ECCC website.