The Lawyers are suing

Well that didn't take long.

The Cambodian Bar is apparently not happy at all with the Draft Internal Rules of the court or with the Principle Defender Rupert Skilbeck. In fact, they have released their comments on the draft rules which really amount to a flat out threat to sue Mr. Skilbeck and the ECCC unless they get their way.

Make no mistake, if the Cambodian Bar carries through with this threat it could make things very difficult indeed for the court to make any further progress. The court is holding an meeting at the Cambodian Japanese Friendship Center (?) all next week to finilize the rules of the court, the Bar Association along with everyone else will be anxiously waiting to see what they come up with.

No pressure guys..... no pressure at all.....

Cambodia's Bar Association threatens to derail Khmer Rouge tribunal

PHNOM PENH (AFP) - Cambodia's Bar Association has demanded greater control over the legal defence of former Khmer Rouge leaders and has threatened to block foreign attorneys from participating in a tribunal to try top regime cadre.

In a scathing statement sent to tribunal staff obtained Friday by AFP, the association said draft internal regulations that would determine how the tribunal operates violate Cambodian law.

At the core of the Bar's complaints is the provision giving foreign lawyers the right to defend Cambodian clients.

Under the current proposed regulations, "lawyers admitted to practice outside of Cambodia shall work in conjunction with a lawyer admitted in Cambodia, as co-lawyers, with equal rights of audience".

Association president Ky Tech said that only the Bar can approve the list of defence attorneys for former Khmer Rouge suspects, oversee their training and mete out discipline.

The Bar has also said it would not approve any foreign lawyers whose home countries did not give Cambodian attorneys reciprocal rights to practice law.

Ky Tech said he would sue the tribunal -- known as the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia -- as well as the government and foreign bar associations if his organisation's demands were not met.

"Foreigners cannot represent clients. They can only accompany Cambodian lawyers," Ky Tech said in the Bar's statement.

"Foreign lawyers must be accepted beforehand by the Bar Association ... these regulations do not abide by Cambodian law," he added.

The Bar also objects to the Defence Office, established to protect the rights of the accused, and said it should be headed by a Cambodian rather than a foreigner.

British lawyer Rupert Skilbeck is currently the principal defender in the office.

A three-year, joint UN-Cambodian tribunal to prosecute crimes committed during the 1975-79 Khmer Rouge regime got underway in July, with co-prosecutors expected to hand up the names of potential defendants to an investigating judge by the end of the year.

Trials are expected to start in mid-2007, and as many as 10 former leaders could be called to the court over the deaths of up to two million people during the Khmer Rouge's four-year rule.

So far no foreign lawyers have applied to act as defence counsel. Only Jacques Verges, the radical French lawyer who defended Nazi Klaus Barbie and the terrorist Carlos the Jackal, has expressed interest in participating.

Verges reportedly met with Khieu Samphan, the head of state during the Khmer Rouge regime, earlier this year to discuss possibly defending the former cadre if he is indicted.

The two had first met in Paris as students during the 1950s.

Debate has raged over how to include Cambodian lawyers, who have a reputation as being notoriously inept and corrupt, in the tribunal.

Few, if any, have international trial experience and are unlikely to be able to match foreign attorneys in skill, critics argue.