VZCZCXRO9638
OO RUEHCHI RUEHDT RUEHHM RUEHNH
DE RUEHPF #0438/01 0790107
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 200107Z MAR 07
FM AMEMBASSY PHNOM PENH
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 8214
INFO RUCNASE/ASEAN MEMBER COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUEHBS/AMEMBASSY BRUSSELS PRIORITY 0057
RUEHBY/AMEMBASSY CANBERRA PRIORITY 2273
RUEHLO/AMEMBASSY LONDON PRIORITY 0407
RUEHOT/AMEMBASSY OTTAWA PRIORITY 0549
RUEHFR/AMEMBASSY PARIS PRIORITY 0568
RUEHKO/AMEMBASSY TOKYO PRIORITY 3143
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK PRIORITY 2226

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 PHNOM PENH 000438 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR EAP/MLS, S/WCI; USUN FOR JDONOVAN 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM KJUS PREL CB
SUBJECT: CAMBODIAN BAR ASSOCIATION SAYS TO ECCC:  SHOW ME 
THE MONEY 
 
 
 ¶1.  (U)  On Friday, March 16, the Review Committee of the 
Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) 
issued a press statement announcing that they had resolved 
all the remaining disagreements between the Cambodian and 
international judges, although the statement noted that 
additional fine tuning remains to be done.  The international 
judges, however, refused to agree to the scheduling of a 
second plenary at the end of April, pending resolution of a 
dispute with the Cambodian Bar Association (CBA) over 
international defense lawyer fees.  The timetable for 
finalizing agreement of the internal rules and moving the 
first case forward from the prosecutors to investigating 
judges in May is now in jeopardy. 
 
¶2.  (U)  The Cambodian judges on the review committee 
disputed the international judges' decision, claiming that 
the fee schedule matter is outside the internal rules 
discussion, and should not hold up the next plenary session. 
The Cambodian judges inserted a reference in the press 
statement highlighting their disagreement over this point 
with the international judges.  The Bar Association President 
Ky Tech maintains that the fees are not high and accused the 
international judges of not wanting to go ahead with the 
trials.  Ky Tech has told the media that the international 
defense lawyers will make as much as $1,000 per day; Rupert 
Skilbeck (whose office will pay the salaries of defense 
counsel -- both foreign and Cambodian -- says that the pay 
scale is on par with a P5 Deputy Prosecutor; i.e., less than 
at other tribunals and does not amount to $1,000 per day. 
 
¶3.  (U)  The Bar Association has stipulated that any 
international judge wishing to be eligible to defend a 
Cambodian client before the ECCC must pay a $500 membership 
application fee to the Bar; if selected, the lawyer would pay 
a one-time fee of $2,000 followed by a $200 monthly fee.  In 
contrast, a Cambodian lawyer pays a $200 fee to be placed on 
the eligibility roster, and a $30 monthly fee thereafter. 
Rupert Skilbeck, the ECCC's Principal Defender, notes that 
the only other international tribunal with lawyer fees to an 
outside organization, the International Criminal Tribunal for 
the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), has significantly lower fees. 
There, the annual fee is $159 to a legal defense counsel 
group, with monthly fees of $40 in the pre-trial and appeal 
stages, and $79 per month during the trial phase.  The 
international judges have tasked Skilbeck's office with 
negotiating the fee schedule with the CBA. 
 
¶4.  (SBU)  The international judges reportedly worry that an 
unnecessarily high fee schedule will discourage many 
international lawyers from considering work at the ECCC, and 
the pool of qualified defense lawyers willing to defend 
Cambodian indictees will narrow considerably.  With a smaller 
pool of lawyers to draw upon, the international judges are 
concerned over an "inequality in arms" and defendants' right 
to a fair trial may be called into question -- particularly 
in the appeal stage.  International judges reportedly want 
CBA fees to be limited to covering actual administrative 
costs; what is being asked, they say, is far in excess of 
normal administrative fees.  Skilbeck agrees, as his office 
will do most of the administrative work normally done by a 
country's bar association.  Human rights NGOs reportedly are 
considering a joint press statement calling for the Bar 
Association to stand down on its proposal.  The NGOs also are 
worried that the fee schedule will impede victims' groups 
from becoming civil parties, as fewer lawyers will likely be 
willing to take on such cases. 
 
¶5.  (SBU)  Comment.  Despite the controversy over defense 
fees, the international judges reportedly are holding the 
dates from the end of April into the first week of May open 
in the hopes that the issue will be resolved.  We have also 
heard, but cannot confirm, that the international judges may 
raise the issue with UN New York if the CBA does not back 
down on its proposal.  Most sources have indicated that the 
CBA proposal is exorbitant because the group has not been 
able to receive international assistance due to previous 
internal disputes over its election process.  Therefore, Ky 
Tech is looking to make as much as possible in the course of 
the ECCC trials, so the logic goes.  One of the proposed 
draft rules reportedly excludes the Bar Association from 
participation in ECCC matters.  If this is true and once it 
 
PHNOM PENH 00000438  002 OF 002 
 
 
is made public, the Bar Association is likely to react 
negatively, as Ky Tech has continued since the November 2006 
plenary to carve out a significant role for the Bar on 
defense issues.  End Comment. 
MUSSOMELI