JURIST - Paper Chase: Khmer Rouge genocide trial rules agreement reached

[JURIST] Judges appointed to the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) [official website] reached an agreement Friday on the most pressing points of contention over the Khmer Rouge [JURIST news archive] genocide trial rules [2006 draft rules, PDF] after a 10-day meeting [JURIST report; press release, PDF]. In a statement made at the end of the talks, the panel of international and Cambodian judges said that only some fine-tuning remains. Although details of the agreement were not released, it seems to have assuaged the threat of a United Nations walkout from the trials, which were scheduled to begin in mid-2007 before being delayed for several months [JURIST report] due to fighting over rules.

Still at issue is a requirement by the Bar Association of the Kingdom of Cambodia (BAKC) that participating international lawyers join and pay a membership fee. The international judges in the ECCC believe this unfairly hinders free selection of counsel by victims and the accused. The Cambodian and international judges of the ECCC plan to resolve remaining differences by the end of April. Reuters has more.

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