KRouge trial faces delays over health woes: observers

KRouge trial faces delays over health woes: observers

Former Khmer Rouge leader ex-social affairs minister Ieng Thirith (AFP/ECCC/HO/File, Mark Peters)

Thursday, August 25, 2011
AFP

PHNOM PENH — A major Khmer Rouge trial at Cambodia's UN-backed war crimes court may not hear testimony until next year, observers said Wednesday, amid fears over the mental health of one of the defendants.

The trial against four top leaders of the brutal 1975-79 regime, which began in June, has stalled after a recent decision by judges to order a psychiatric assessment on Ieng Thirith, 79.

Anne Heindel, a legal advisor to the Documentation Centre of Cambodia, which researches Khmer Rouge atrocities, believes the process to determine mental fitness "is likely to take until the end of the year".

That view was echoed by a court official, who told AFP it is "unlikely the trial will get going this year" but asked not to be named.