PP court to summon KRT staff in graft case

THE Phnom Penh Municipal Court intends to summon employees at Cambodia's Extraordinary Chambers as witnesses to testify in the criminal investigation into allegations of systemic corruption at the genocide tribunal, officials said Wednesday.

"I have just started investigating the case now. I cannot forecast how long it will take, as the case is very complicated and it is hard to find evidence or proof that someone committed corruption," Sok Kaliyan, deputy prosecutor at the Phnom Penh Municipal Court, told the Post Wednesday.

International defence lawyers for former Khmer Rouge Brother No 2 Nuon Chea filed a criminal complaint to the civil court Friday, claiming Sean Visoth, the government's top official to the Khmer Rouge tribunal, as well as the court's former chief of personnel, Keo Thyvuth, violated criminal law by "perpetrating, facilitating, aiding and/or abetting an organised regime of institutional corruption at the ECCC during the pending judicial investigation".

The complaint prompted tribunal judges to make a statement denying the allegations, as well as threatening legal action against the lawyers if the complaint was made in bad faith.

Richard Rogers, head of the defence section of the court, said that he supported any measures that would resolve the corruption issue.