The UN has published the names of 12 legal experts nominated by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to participate in the Khmer Rouge tribunal, according to the UN’s New York press briefing notes for Wednesday.
The names of seven international judges were forwarded to the Cambodian Supreme Council of Magistracy who must choose judges for two trial and three appeal court positions.
They nominees are: New Zealand Governor-General Silvia Cartwright, US New York State Supreme Court judge Martin Karopkin, Sri Lankan Chandra Nihal Jayasinghe, Frenchman Jean-Marc Lavergne, Japanese citizen Motoo Noguchi, and Kosovo Internationalized Courts veterans Claudia Fenz, of Austria, and Agnieszka Klonowiecka-Milart of Poland.
Annan put forward one nomination for the post of international co-investigating judge: Frenchman Marcel Lemonde. According to information found on the Internet, Lemonde is the chief of the Appeals Court in Bastia, Corsica.
The Supreme Council of Magistracy will choose among American Paul Coffey, the former US Justice Department chief prosecutor of organized crime, and Canadian Robert Petit for co-prosecutor positions.
Nominated for the pre-trial chamber, which decides disputes between the co-prosecutors and between the co-investigating judges, are Australian Rowan Downing and Katinka Lahuis of the Netherlands.
“I can’t comment on any of the nominees because I don’t know any of them,” Documentation Center of Cambodia Director Youk Chhang said.
“The UN selection system has been transparent so I trust it. I hope that Cambodia can use it as a model and adopt it for the selection of Cambodian judges,” he said.
The Supreme Council of Magistracy is now expected to announce the three Cambodian trial judges, four appeals court judges, co-prosecutor, co-investigating judge and three pre-trial judges, trial press officer Reach Sambath said.
Reach Sambath said that next week the government and UN will sign a supplemental agreement to the 2003 tribunal agreement detailing security and safety arrangements for the tribunal staff.
He said six major donors to Cambodia out of 27 countries have agreed to release Untac-era funds to fill the tribunal’s $9.6 million budget shortfall. Three major countries have asked for more time to decide, he added.