Cambodian judges today denied that they paid kickbacks to government officials to secure jobs on a genocide tribunal to try former Khmer Rouge leaders.
The judges were responding to a complaint filed by lawyers for Nuon Chea, one of five former senior Khmer Rouge leaders due to be tried by the U.N.-backed tribunal for crimes against humanity and other offenses.
The dispute could further delay the tribunal's much-postponed first trial, which was slated to begin early this year.
The tribunal is tasked with seeking justice for the atrocities committed by the ultra-communist regime, whose radical policies caused an estimated 1.7 million deaths during its four years in power in the 1970s.
Many Cambodians are frustrated that the Khmer Rouge leaders have still not been tried three decades after the regime fell in 1979, and fear the aging and infirm defendants could die before they face justice.
Cambodian politics and disagreements between the government and the U.N. delayed the establishment of the tribunal for years.
Disputes over procedure - and allegations of corruption - have held up the tribunal as well.
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