ECCC, Case 002/01, Issue 65

Case 002/01

ECCC

Cambodia

English

This week, the Chamber commenced hearing the last “key document hearing” for Case 002/01. From Monday to Thursday, the Prosecution and Civil Party lawyers presented documents regarding Joint Criminal Enterprise (JCE) and documents related to the Accused, Nuon Chea. Documents relevant to the role of Khieu Samphan were presented during the third key document hearing held earlier this year. The Trial Chamber reiterated to the Parties that the purpose of the key document hearings was to enable Parties to make submissions in relation to the probative value of the documents, not to discuss admissibility. The Trial Chamber’s decision to hold the hearings has been contested by the Khieu Samphan Defense, who in February filed a submission arguing that the key document hearings violate their client’s fair trial rights.

A number of legal and procedural issues were raised during the week, primarily relating to the applicable evidentiary rules and standards at the ECCC. Parties also continued to raise issues relating to the scope of the Severance Order. Following a request from the Nuon Chea Defense for additional time to review the documents presented, the Chamber informed Parties that the Defense teams would be granted one additional week to prepare their response. As a result, next week the Chamber will resume hearing the testimonies of witnesses shortlisted during the last Trial Management Meeting (TMM). The Defense will then have an opportunity to respond to the documents presented commencing the week of 8 July 2013.