Documents likely stolen from KRouge leader's defence: lawyer

Former Khmer Rouge leader Nuon Chea (C) is helped to stand for a verdict

By Patrick Falby

PHNOM PENH (AFP) — A Khmer Rouge leader's defence lawyer at Cambodia's UN-backed war crimes trial said Thursday that confidential documents on an official's Leninist beliefs appeared to have been stolen from his office.

Michiel Pestman, the Dutch defence lawyer for the former regime's ideologue Nuon Chea, said he became aware of the "security incident" Wednesday when he found four confidential papers from his office floating in a pond at the court.

"We have no explanation. What we do know is that the documents should have been shredded. They were not, and they were most probably stolen from our office," Pestman told reporters.

"We have serious concerns about security and the confidentiality of our investigation," he said.

Pestman said that he had notified the tribunal's security team so that they could conduct an investigation into the probable theft of the documents, which were drafts of a letter to a court official.

"There will be an investigation into the matter, but at this time it's premature to conclude that anything has been stolen," tribunal spokesman Lars Olsen confirmed to AFP.

Pestman said the documents were drafts of a letter to the recently appointed head of the court's victims unit, Helen Jarvis, raising concerns about her membership of Australia's Leninist Party Faction (LPF).

Jarvis signed a 2006 LPF statement which proclaimed: "Against the bourgeoisie and their state agencies we don't respect their laws and their fake moral principles."

Pestman told reporters he was concerned that the statement indicated that Jarvis, who also serves as an ethics monitor at the court, might not follow Khmer Rouge tribunal regulations.

"We think that the victims unit should follow the rules, and if they don't follow the rules of procedure that could potentially affect the right to a fair trial of our client," Pestman said.

Jarvis told AFP she did not wish to comment on the matter.

The troubled tribunal, which is currently trying former Khmer Rouge prison chief Duch, also faces accusations of political interference by the government and claims that Cambodian staff were forced to pay kickbacks for their jobs.

Duch has stated that he took orders to kill and torture from Pestman's client Nuon Chea, who is commonly referred to as the Khmer Rouge "Brother Number Two."

Others in detention awaiting trial besides Nuon Chea are former head of state Khieu Samphan, foreign minister Ieng Sary and his wife and minister of social affairs Ieng Thirith.

Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot died in 1998 before facing justice, and fears over the health of ageing suspects hang over the court.

The long-awaited first trial has heard Duch, whose real name is Kaing Guek Eav, acknowledge responsibility and beg forgiveness for overseeing the torture and execution of more than 15,000 people at the notorious Tuol Sleng prison.

Up to two million people were executed or died of starvation, disease and overwork as the Khmer Rouge movement emptied cities and enslaved the population on collective farms in its bid to create a communist utopia.