Rouge lawyers turn up pressure on judge

Defence lawyers increased the pressure on the French investigating judge at Cambodia’s UN-backed Khmer Rouge court yesterday, filing an appeal accusing his office of withholding information. The move follows motions over the past week seeking to disqualify Marcel Lemonde from the court for alleged bias, filed by defence teams for former Khmer Rouge foreign minister Ieng Sary and former head of state Khieu Samphan. Now, Ieng Sary’s lawyers are arguing in an appeal that the co-investigating judges have refused to answer a May request to reveal how they collect and weigh evidence against leaders of the brutal late 1970s regime. “This denial effectively obstructs the defence’s ability to ensure Mr Ieng Sary receives a fair trial and has negative implications for the transparency of the proceedings,” said the appeal.