Khmer Rouge Trials Delayed Over Fees
Foreign lawyers who want to serve at the Khmer Rouge genocide tribunal are balking at a requirement that they first ante up $4,900.
Foreign lawyers who want to serve at the Khmer Rouge genocide tribunal are balking at a requirement that they first ante up $4,900.
Because of the legal fee, the lawyers boycotted an April 30 meeting to adopt rules for the trials, the Sunday Herald reports. But the Cambodian Bar Association is standing firm and refusing to reverse the fee.
Eric G. John, the U.S. deputy assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, is urging Cambodian and foreign judges to put aside their differences over the fees so proceedings can get underway.
“The Khmer Rouge tribunal is really the opportunity for Cambodia to show the international community how far it has advanced,” he says.
The tribunal was scheduled try surviving Khmer Rouge leaders this year for crimes against humanity during the group’s 1975-79 rule.
