Comrade Duch, the defendant in the first case tried by the UN-backed Khmer Rouge war crimes tribunal, sacked his foreign defence lawyer Friday, weeks before the court is to hand down its verdict, according to dpa. The tribunal said it would allow Duch, whose real name is Kaing Guek Eav, to fire Frenchman Francois Roux over what it said were the "exceptional circumstances" of Duch's "loss of confidence" in Roux. Duch is charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity for his role in the deaths of more than 12,000 people when he headed S-21, the Khmer Rouge's key torture and execution centre in Phnom Penh from 1975 to 1979. He is to hear the verdict in his case July 26. A tribunal statement said Duch had requested Roux's removal in a June 30 submission to the defence support section of the UN-Cambodian tribunal and accepted that his loss of confidence was genuine. "This decision is not an endorsement of the underlying reasons for the loss of confidence put forward by Mr Kaing in his request," defence support section head Richard Rogers said. "In the circumstances, it has not been necessary either to accept or to reject the underlying reasons." The section also noted that the sacking of Roux would not delay proceedings and barred Duch from appointing a replacement foreign defence lawyer ahead of the July 26 hearing. The tribunal's hybrid nature means foreign and Cambodian nationals jointly hold key positions, including on the prosecution, defence and investigative sides. The court said Duch's Cambodian defence lawyer, Kar Savuth, would continue to represent him. The latest twist followed the defence team's spectacular implosion in the final days of the 77-day trial when Duch dramatically reversed his plea and asked to be acquitted and released. Duch's request, which came after months of stating that he accepted responsibility for his role in the deaths at S-21, was endorsed by Kar Savuth but clearly caught Roux by surprise. In the final days of the trial in November, Kar Savuth told the five-judge bench that Duch ought not to be on trial because international law did not apply as his client had been following orders. He also argued that the court had no jurisdiction over Duch. Roux revealed the depth of the split in the defence team that week when he told the bench that the two defence lawyers had "disagreements" over their approach to the case but said international law "of course" applied to Duch. The court's remit is to try those considered most responsible for crimes committed by the 1975-79 Khmer Rouge regime. Four surviving senior leaders are in detention for their alleged involvement in the deaths of 1.7 million people. The four, whose trials are expected to start early next year, are former Brother Number Two Nuon Chea, the movement's ideologue; former head of state Khieu Samphan; former foreign minister Ieng Sary; and his wife, the former social affairs minister Ieng Thirith. The movement's leader, Pol Pot, died in 1998 without being tried.
