Lawyer for Khmer Rouge’s Nuon Chea was practising illegally, says Cambodian bar association, casting mistrial risk over historic verdict
- Victor Koppe is dismissed by a UN-backed tribunal in Cambodia after the bar association reports he was unregistered as a lawyer in the Netherlands in 2016
- The revelation throws doubt over the nine-year process to bring justice to Nuon Chea – Pol Pot’s ‘Brother No 2’ – and fellow defendant Khieu Samphan
The defence lawyer for Nuon Chea, Pol Pot’s infamous “Brother No 2” in Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge regime, may have been working without proper legal authority for years, adding yet another layer of uncertainty to the United Nations-backed tribunal that has dragged on for nine years.
The disclosure, found in a document issued by the Cambodian Bar Association (BAKC) on December 11 and seen by the South China Morning Post, cast in doubt the proceedings of the highly publicised international tribunal that led to the guilty verdict rendered last month, and raises the possibility of a mistrial or an appeal.
Victor Koppe was dismissed by the tribunal after it came to light that he was not registered as a lawyer in Cambodia when he represented Chea in court last month.
The document shows that Koppe had been taken off the BAKC list in August this year.
“The fact that Mr Victor Koppe continued to dress as a professional lawyer, use the legal profession and participate in the court proceedings after his name had been removed from the BAKC is in breach of the law on the bar,” reads the document sent to the Defence Support Section (DSS) of the tribunal, and signed by BAKC Deputy Secretary General Koy Neam.
“The BAKC hopes that you will cooperate … in order to avoid any legal consequences arising from Mr Victor Koppe’s illegal profession,” the document said.