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PHNOM PENH: Former Khmer Rouge leader Nuon Chea is to appeal Monday against his detention by Cambodia's genocide tribunal, insisting there is not enough evidence to keep him behind bars pending trial.
The appearance of the regime's 81-year-old ideologue, the senior-most Khmer Rouge cadre to be arrested, would be only the second public hearing since the UN-backed tribunal was convened 18 months ago.
Nuon Chea, Khmer Rouge supreme leader Pol Pot's closest deputy and alleged architect of the regime's devastating execution policies during its 1975-1979 rule, is charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Up to two million people died of starvation and overwork, or were executed by the Khmer Rouge, which dismantled modern Cambodian society in its effort to forge a radical agrarian utopia.
Cities were emptied, their populations exiled onto vast collective farms, while schools were closed, religion banned and the educated classes targeted for extermination.
Tribunal judges have said they decided to keep Nuon Chea in detention after his September arrest as many documents and witness statements implicated him in crimes committed under the regime.
Nuon Chea's lawyers argue that he should be freed from pre-trial detention due to lack of evidence and because the court judges allegedly violated legal procedures during their first interviews with him.
He was without a lawyer for his first three appearances before the judges, but never properly waived his right to have an attorney present, the lawyers said.
"No reasonable judge under the circumstances would have accepted Mr Nuon's waiver of his right to the assistance of counsel," they wrote in their motion against detention.
They said he was too exhausted from his arrest to understand fully what was happening to him.
His lawyers have also dismissed claims by prosecutors that Nuon Chea, who lived near the former Khmer Rouge stronghold of Pailin, near the Thai border, would flee the country if freed.
"Mr Nuon denied any participation in criminal activity and indicated that, despite having had many chances to do so already, he does not intend to flee and wishes to participate in the proceedings," the lawyers said.
The appeal comes amid a battle over his lawyers' attempts to remove one of the pre-trial chamber judges, military court president Ney Thol. They claim he "is neither independent nor impartial" under a motion filed last week.
Monday's hearing may not go ahead in any case because of a dispute over the make-up of his legal team.
Cambodia's Bar Association -- which must admit foreign lawyers before they can conduct any court business -- refused Friday to accept a Dutch attorney, Victor Koppe, because he had signed last week's motion before being sworn in.
Tribunal officials said last week the Bar's decision would not affect this week's hearing, but another lawyer for Nuon Chea, Cambodian Sun Arun, said at the weekend that he would seek a postponement Monday.
"I cannot do it alone and win," he told AFP Saturday. "It is not possible to proceed with the hearing without foreign lawyers."
The possible delay has alarmed observers who say speedy trials are critical for justice to be served.
All five of the former Khmer Rouge leaders currently in custody are elderly and ill, and there are fears they could die before being put in the dock.
Cambodia's genocide tribunal was convened in 2006 after nearly a decade of fractious talks between the government and United Nations.
But it has been badly hampered by delays, amid infighting among foreign and Cambodian judges as well as attempts by the Cambodian Bar Association to assert
its authority over foreign defence lawyers. - AFP/ac
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