By Julia Wallace
PHNOMH PENH
A long-awaited trial of 11 opposition activists was postponed again Thursday after the defendants’ lawyers staged a walk-out to protest the court’s decision not to allow opposition MPs to observe the hearing.
The activists were all charged with involvement in an “insurrection” in relation to violence that broke out at an anti-government protest in July. At the same rally, seven lawmakers-elect from the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) were arrested and jailed, but they were ultimately released after hasty negotiations to end a year-long political stalemate.
The CNRP then entered parliament, granting the seven lawmakers immunity from prosecution and putting their court case on hold. However, the case against the other 11 activists -five of whom are jailed-has gone forward. Human rights groups have described the charges as politically motivated and have urged the Cambodian government to drop the case.
The seven lawmakers attempted to observe Thursday’s hearing in solidarity, but were barred by the presiding judge, Taing Sunlay, after an objection from the plaintiffs’ lawyers.
“We would not allow seven lawmakers to listen in the hearing room because they were charged in the same case, so please, excellencies, leave the courtroom,” the judge said.
After the order, the lawyers for the 11 activists walked out in protest.
“Whenever a presiding judge decides to dismiss seven lawyers from a courtroom like this, the hearing is not a public hearing and all the lawyers will not join in the hearing,” said one of the lawyers, Choung Chou Ngy.
He said the decision was manifestly illegal, and showed that any ensuing trial heard by Judge Sunlay and the other members of the trial panel would be unfair.
“If the three penal judges showed such injustice since the beginning like this, how can I defend my clients?” he asked.
The deputy prosecutor, Keo Socheat, asked the judges to appoint new counsel for the 11 activists so that the trial would not be further delayed.
However, one of the defendants, Oeu Narith, 39, said he would refuse to accept any other lawyer.
“I am a defendant, so I have the right to accept the lawyer that I am satisfied with and I choose,” he said.
“We have never committed crimes in our lives, but we just work to help our society, and I was unjustly charged with leading an insurrection,” he added.
Narith is an assistant to Mu Sochua, one of the lawmakers barred from the hearing. She said she believed the judge’s order to expel her and her colleagues from the courtroom was unconstitutional.
“Not allowing lawmakers to join to listen to a public hearing, I think that is constitutionally wrong,” she said.
