Opening Statement of the Impugned Website

Mr. IENG Sary's Defence Team before the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia

This website has been created and is operated by the Defence team representing Mr. IENG Sary before the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia. The justification and rationale for this website is set out in a letter from the Co-Lawyers in the Defence team to the Director and Deputy Director of Administration at the ECCC. The Defence team will endeavour to regularly update the site with all public filings that the Defence generates so that the complex proceedings are as transparent as possible.

"...the current practice by the Judicial Chambers and Co-Investigating Judges at the ECCC, of suppressing Defence filings which may be embarrassing or which call into question the legitimacy and judiciousness of acts and decisions of the judges, all under the fig leaf that these are necessary measures to protect the supposed confidentiality and integrity of the investigation or judicial decision-making process, must be discontinued without exception. Submissions which are solely the work of the Defence team and which do not relate to the substance of the ongoing judicial investigation but relate solely to legal issues, must be debated under the watchful eye of the public. To allow non-confidential issues to be debated behind closed doors not only deprives Mr. IENG Sary of a fair and public trial but also deprives Cambodia of a demonstration of how complex trials for the most serious crimes can be conducted openly and transparently.”

Letter from Michael G. Karnavas and Ang Udom to the ECCC Director of Administration, 18 December 2008.