Prosecutors mull appealing Khmer Rouge release order

11/18/11
Source: Portalangop

PHNOM PENH - Prosecutors at Cambodia's Khmer Rouge tribunal are expected to decide Friday whether to appeal against a decision to release a genocide suspect deemed unfit for trial because she has dementia.

Thursday's order for the unconditional release of Ieng Thirith the regime's "First Lady" and only female leader charged by the UN-backed court came just days before the tribunal was to hear opening statements in her trial with three co-accused.

Prosecutors at the court have 24 hours to request the stay of the 79-year-old woman's release and appeal against the order or else she will be freed, court sources said.

Court-appointed experts told the tribunal last month that Ieng Thirith suffers from memory loss and most likely has Alzheimer's disease.

They noted that she had trouble remembering her past and once even failed to recall the name of her husband and co-accused Ieng Sary, the regime's former foreign affairs minister.

Trial monitor Anne Heindel said prosecutors probably agreed that Ieng Thirith lacked the mental fitness to go on trial, but she believed they would object to freeing her without conditions.

"They probably are going to feel obligated to appeal because of public opinion," said Heindel, a legal advisor to the Documentation Centre of Cambodia, which researches Khmer Rouge atrocities.

She said there might be "a negative reaction" from victims and the wider public if the accused walks free.

Trial chamber judges said Thursday that the "continued detention of an accused who lacks capacity to understand proceedings against her... would not serve the interests of justice".

Ieng Thirith and three fellow top regime leaders have been charged with war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity over the deaths of up to two million people during the communist movement's 1975-1979 reign of terror.

All four including "Brother Number Two" Nuon Chea and ex-head of state Khieu Samphan have been held at a purpose-built detention centre near the court since 2007. They have always denied the charges against them.

Questions have long been raised over the mental state of Ieng Thirith, who famously lost her cool during a 2009 court appearance, telling her accusers they would be "cursed to the seventh circle of hell".