Cambodia’s genocide tribunal on Friday rejected an appeal by the Khmer Rouge’s former foreign minister for his release from pretrial detention on charges of crimes against humanity and war atrocities.
Judge Prak Kim San rejected Ieng Sary’s appeal out of concern he could flee if released.
Peter Foster, a spokesman for the UN-assisted tribunal, said the judge’s ruling was also based on concerns that Ieng Sary could intimidate potential witnesses.
The tribunal is seeking to establish accountability for an estimated 1.7 million deaths and other atrocities under the 1975-1979 Khmer Rouge regime.
Ieng Sary, 82, is one of five former senior members of the ultra-communist regime detained by the tribunal.
His wife, Ieng Thirith, the former social affairs minister, is also detained on charges of crimes against humanity.
During a hearing in July, defense attorneys argued that Ieng Sary should be released because of ill health and the possibility that a prosecution would constitute double jeopardy — being judged twice for the same crime.
Ieng Sary was condemned to death by a tribunal under a communist government installed by Vietnamese troops after they toppled the Khmer Rouge regime in 1979. That tribunal was a show trial with no real defense.
Former Cambodian King Norodom Sihanouk pardoned Ieng Sary in 1996 as a reward for leading thousands of his fellow guerrillas to join the government, a move that foreshadowed the Khmer Rouge’s final collapse in 1999 and brought an end to the country’s civil war.
The pardon once threatened to derail negotiations between the Cambodia and the UN on establishing the tribunal.
After years of difficult talks, the two sides agreed on a tribunal pact in 2003 which contains a clause preventing the government from seeking “amnesty or pardon for any persons who may be investigated for or convicted of crimes” during Khmer Rouge rule.
Former Nicaraguan president Violeta Chamorro, who brought peace to Nicaragua after years of war and was the first woman elected president in the Americas, died on Saturday at the age of 95, her family said. Chamorro, who ruled the poor Central American country from 1990 to 1997, “died in peace, surrounded by the affection and love of her children,” said a statement issued by her four children. As president, Chamorro ended a civil war that had raged for much of the 1980s as US-backed rebels known as the “Contras” fought the leftist Sandinista government. That conflict made Nicaragua one of
COMPETITION: The US and Russia make up about 90 percent of the world stockpile and are adding new versions, while China’s nuclear force is steadily rising, SIPRI said Most of the world’s nuclear-armed states continued to modernize their arsenals last year, setting the stage for a new nuclear arms race, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said yesterday. Nuclear powers including the US and Russia — which account for about 90 percent of the world’s stockpile — had spent time last year “upgrading existing weapons and adding newer versions,” researchers said. Since the end of the Cold War, old warheads have generally been dismantled quicker than new ones have been deployed, resulting in a decrease in the overall number of warheads. However, SIPRI said that the trend was likely
Indonesia’s Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki yesterday erupted again with giant ash and smoke plumes after forcing evacuations of villages and flight cancelations, including to and from the resort island of Bali. Several eruptions sent ash up to 5km into the sky on Tuesday evening to yesterday afternoon. An eruption on Tuesday afternoon sent thick, gray clouds 10km into the sky that expanded into a mushroom-shaped ash cloud visible as much as 150km kilometers away. The eruption alert was raised on Tuesday to the highest level and the danger zone where people are recommended to leave was expanded to 8km from the crater. Officers also
BOMBARDMENT: Moscow sent more than 440 drones and 32 missiles, Volodymyr Zelenskiy said, in ‘one of the most terrifying strikes’ on the capital in recent months A nighttime Russian missile and drone bombardment of Ukraine killed at least 15 people and injured 116 while they slept in their homes, local officials said yesterday, with the main barrage centering on the capital, Kyiv. Kyiv City Military Administration head Tymur Tkachenko said 14 people were killed and 99 were injured as explosions echoed across the city for hours during the night. The bombardment demolished a nine-story residential building, destroying dozens of apartments. Emergency workers were at the scene to rescue people from under the rubble. Russia flung more than 440 drones and 32 missiles at Ukraine, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy
RSS