Testimony of Cambodia leaders sought at KRouge trial: reports

The Extraodinary Chambers in the Court of Cambodia (ECCC) in Phnom Penh

PHNOM PENH (AFP) — Lawyers have asked Cambodia's UN-backed Khmer Rouge genocide court to interview Premier Hun Sen, former king Norodom Sihanouk and other current leaders, local media reported Monday.

The English-language Cambodia Daily and Phnom Penh Post said the request was made by the defence team for former Khmer Rouge ideologue Nuon Chea, who is scheduled to be tried later this year for crimes against humanity.

Confidential court documents leaked to the newspapers said lawyers also asked for testimony from senate president Chea Sim and national assembly president Heng Samrin about their service to the regime in the late 1970s.

"The above-named individuals are likely in possession of documents and information relevant to the pending judicial investigation," the Phnom Penh Post reported, quoting the request.

All the leaders named in the document at one time played roles in the Khmer Rouge, but left the regime before it was ousted in 1979 and deny any participation in atrocities which killed up to two million people.

Nuon Chea's Dutch co-defence lawyers filed the request, his Cambodian attorney Son Arun told AFP, adding that his partners would file a complaint at the court to investigate "the leak of the documents."

Former "Brother Number Two" Nuon Chea is one of five Khmer Rouge leaders to be tried by the court for killing up to one quarter of Cambodia's population through overwork, starvation and execution in a bid for a communist utopia.

The long-awaited first Khmer Rouge trial started last month when the regime's notorious prison chief, Kaing Guek Eav, better known by the alias Duch, went before the court.

Cambodia's UN-backed Khmer Rouge court does not have enough money to pay local salaries this month, said a leading judge Monday, following corruption claims that have made donors wary.

Kong Srim, head of the Khmer Rouge tribunal's supreme court chamber, told a plenary session of the tribunal that donations have dried up for Cambodian staff salaries as proceedings start against leaders from the 1975-1979 regime.

"Unfortunately the national side of the court will not have sufficient funds for the staff salaries for this month," Kong Srim told Cambodian and international judicial officials in an opening speech.