PTC Sweeps Another One Under the Rug

While Case 002 is getting in high gear, the brouhaha between the Co-Investigating Judges (CIJs) and the International Co-Prosecutor (CP) seems to have abated. At least for now as none of the issues have been resolved. The contretemps kicked off with the International CP filing a request for additional investigation getting the wind that the CIJs might not be interested in letting Case 003 through. The CIJs replied with a decision arguing that the International CP’s request was inadmissible as it was filed unilaterally without power to do so having been delegated by the National CP. The National CP confirmed the correctness of the CIJs’ perception of the situation. The International CP essentially retorted with “we have done this before, we will do this again” line of counter-argumentation. CIJs declared the investigation in Case 003 closed which essentially meant that they filed what under Cambodian law is known as a ‘non-suit’ or in simple terms ‘case closed’. The International CP took the dispute to the public putting the CIJs in the line of fire. Incensed, the CIJs lashed back ordering the International CP to retract his statement which in simple language meant to back down and apologize for disrespecting the CIJs. Touch talk was thrown around. The International CP was put on a deadline to kowtow to the CIJs’ ultimatum. The International CP would not budge and appealed the dispute to the Pre-Trial Chamber (PTC) instead which put him outside the realm of possibility of contempt of the court. PTC, having sat on the appeal for a bit, issued a preliminary opinion telling the brawlers to chill explaining that the International CP’s appeal would have no real way of remedying out the situation and the CIJs’ demand to retract was equally futile as it would do nothing to return things to the situation before the International CP spilled the beans by made their dispute public (the PTC underplayed the obvious fact that the jousting was not about preservation of the confidentiality of court documents but the raw nature of men’s desire to dominate other men). PTC closed with “we will look at it later” couched in the language of officialdom. Last time we saw a “we will look at it later” from the PTC it took them over a year to get around to looking at it again following which the Chamber issued a noncommittal missive promising to “continue looking at it”. This was the beginning of this dispute. It is difficult to see how the PTC has not contributed to this mess. Now that he finds himself at the beginning of a long and difficult trial, the International CP will have to spread himself thin to continue fighting his fight over 003 without as much as moral support from the National CP while pulling weight shaping complex (such as trying to bring JCE III back from a TC-induced coma) legal arguments (National CP can read them in court but someone needs to actually write them before that can be done) to win 002 with flying colors. The International CP doubtless understands that waiting for the PTC’s grace with bated breath will not bring 003 back and some serious cattle prodding is the only way it ever gets underway. The question here is does the International CP have a cattle prod in his inventory?