With plans to hold a second training course next month for court officials short-listed for the long-delayed Khmer Rouge tribunal, officials have refused to release a list of 30 judges and prosecutors “shortlisted” as the government’s candidates for the trial.
The 30 candidates were hand-picked by the Supreme Council of Magistracy and first brought together at the Royal School for Judges and Prosecutors in August to study various international conventions and laws, said Helen Jarvis, an adviser to the government’s tribunal task force, on Monday.
The 30 will attend the course likely to take place next month, Jarvis said. She would not name those who are participating, saying it was the responsibility of the Supreme Council of Magistracy.
Fellow task force member Sean Visoth also refused to name the participants, referring the question to Kim Sathavy, director of the judge and prosecutor school.
But Kim Sathavy said she could not release the names.
“I cannot,” she said. “I am not allowed to give it to the press.”
Justice Minister Ang Vong Vathana could not be reached for comment.
UNDP officials said they did not know the names of the 30 course participants, though the August training course was funded by the UNDP and was attended by Judge Florence Ndepele Mwachande Mumba of Zambia, who was involved in the international tribunals for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia.
Lao Mong Hay of the Center for Social Development said a course to train judges and prosecutors on international laws and standards is long overdue.
He expressed concern, however, that the names of those who may preside over the Khmer Rouge tribunal have not been made public.
“This issue has been with us since the beginning,” he said. “Almost all of [the council members] belong to the same party,” he said of the Supreme Council of Magistracy, some of whose members are senior members of Prime Minister Hun Sen’s ruling CPP.
