Press ReleasePhnom Penh – 15 October 2009
PRE-TRIAL CHAMBER REJECTION OF AMICUS CURIAE BRIEF – OPAQUE FILING PROCEDURES AND THE DISREGARD OF LEGACY AT THE ECCC
The Cambodian Center for Human Rights (“CCHR”) today slams the rejection by the Pre Trial Chamber (“PTC”) at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (“ECCC”) of its amicus curiae brief dated 7 September 2009 (the “CCHR Brief”) that was submitted to assist the PTC in determining whether or not to uphold the Office of the Co Investigating Judges (the “OCIJ”) Order on use of statements which were or may have been obtained by torture dated 28th July 2009 (the “OCIJ Order”). The rejection - which was made with no explanation - reflects the complete lack of transparency that has bedeviled the ECCC from the outset, and the continuing and abject failure of the ECCC to afford any consideration to its legacy for Cambodia.
The CCHR Brief described as irresponsible and injudicious the OCIJ Order, which amounts to a blanket acceptance of torture-tainted evidence that puts the ECCC and Cambodia in breach of the Convention Against Torture. Moreover, the OCIJ Order was described as a dangerous precedent that could be exploited by the Cambodian judiciary to permit the admission of torture-tainted evidence and serve to legitimize endemic torture practices in Cambodia. The CCHR Brief raised the concern that the OCIJ Order operates to inform members of the infamously partial and nonindependent Cambodia judiciary that the law can be set aside – in this case a blanket international ban on the use of torture tainted evidence – in order to achieve a predetermined or desirable result.
The CCHR Brief was sent in conjunction with a complaint letter to the United Nations (“UN”) Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, and the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Cambodia respectively; and was expressly supported by a letter from the Law Society of England and Wales to the PTC. The CCHR has received an email from an unnamed ‘Case File Officer’ to the effect that the PTC had rejected the CCHR Brief.
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