Defence lawyers increased the pressure on the French investigating judge at Cambodia's UN-backed Khmer Rouge court on Tuesday, filing an appeal accusing his office of withholding information.

The move follows motions over the past week seeking to disqualify Marcel Lemonde from the court for alleged bias, filed by defence teams for former Khmer Rouge foreign minister Ieng Sary and former head of state Khieu Samphan.
 

Now, Ieng Sary's lawyers are arguing in an appeal that the co-investigating judges have refused to answer a May request to reveal how they collect and weigh evidence against leaders of the brutal late 1970s regime.
 

“Negative implications”
"This denial effectively obstructs the defence's ability to ensure Mr Ieng Sary receives a fair trial and has negative implications for the transparency of the proceedings," said the appeal, a copy of which was obtained by AFP.
 

Tribunal spokesman Lars Olsen said Tuesday that the investigating judges did not consider they had rejected the request from Ieng Sary's lawyers, but had been occupied by a number of other time-consuming defence filings.
 

"The request by the defence team is currently under consideration by the co-investigating judges. There has been no intention to not answer their request," Olsen said.
 

The accusations of bias also facing Lemonde were based on a sworn statement by his former chief of intelligence, alleging the judge told subordinates to favour evidence showing suspects' guilt over evidence of their innocence.
 

No comment
Lemonde has refused to publicly comment on the allegations, but indicated he will provide necessary information about the issue to the court.
 

His office is currently investigating the court's second case, against Khieu Samphan, Ieng Sary and his wife, former minister of social affairs Ieng Thirith, as well as Khmer Rouge ideologue Nuon Chea.
 

Final arguments in the court's first trial of prison chief Kaing Guek Eav, known by the alias Duch, are scheduled for late next month.
 

Led by Pol Pot, who died in 1998, the Khmer Rouge emptied Cambodia's cities in a bid to forge a communist utopia between 1975-79, resulting in the deaths of up to two million people from starvation, overwork and torture.
 

Source: AFP