With appeal proceedings finally get­ting underway at the Khmer Rouge tribunal on Tuesday, prosecutors rejected claims from the de­fense teams for Nuon Chea and Khieu Samphan that their clients had been at the center of a show trial meant only to find them guilty.

On the first day of scheduled hear­ings in November, proceedings were postponed following a walk­out by Nuon Chea and his team.

Khieu Samphan attends an appeal hearing at the Khmer Rouge tribunal Tuesday. (ECCC)

Son Arun, the national lawyer for Pol Pot’s former deputy, was pres­ent in court on Tuesday but instructed not to “actively participate” in the hearings, according to Doreen Chen, Nuon Chea’s senior legal consultant.

Taking a break from hearings in the second phase of Case 002 against the two senior Khmer Rouge leaders, defense attorneys and prosecutors argued the merits of the guilty verdict handed down in the first phase of the case in Au­gust 2014.

Tuesday’s hearing focused on the fairness of the proceedings, the constitutionality of the internal rules and the overall approach to evidence.

Khieu Samphan’s lawyers ar­gued that the Trial Chamber had fail­ed in its duty to remain impartial.

“Convicting Khieu Samphan was the goal. He had to be convicted be­fore he passed on,” international law­yer Anta Guisse said of her 85-year-old client.

“The question is not so much on what evidence the chamber relied on, but what they did with the evidence,” she told the court. “The pur­pose of the trial was nev­er really to try him, but to sentence him and con­vict him.”

William Smith, deputy international co-prosecutor, said that even if some errors had occurred during the trial, the overall evidence presented during the trial was “ab­solutely and fundamentally fair.”

“What Khieu Samphan hasn’t shown is how these errors, if they ex­isted, compounded each other to in­validate the rights of their client,” he told the court.

Smith’s colleague, national co-prosecutor Chea Leang, described the evi­dence against the two appellants as “simply overwhelming.”

She dismissed repeated complaints from Nuon Chea’s defense team claiming that the court has at­tempted to prevent him from telling his version of events.

“He chose to remain silent, which is his right. But it is disingenuous to exert his right to re­main si­lent, and then tell the public that he has not been able to tell his side of the story,” she said.

“The defense failed, not be­cause the trial chamber was un­fair, but ra­ther that the evidence showed that these crimes were committed, and that Nuon Chea and Khieu Samphan played key roles, making them criminally re­sponsible.”

Appeal hearings before the Su­preme Court continue today.

More than 90 people had been hospitalized in Takeo province as of Tuesday evening after eating tainted noodles during a Buddhist ceremony at a pagoda on Monday, officials said.

People from six villages in Cheang Tong commune attended the ceremony, where they ate an evening meal that included fresh rice noodles purchased from a local producer and whole­saler, according to Tram Kak district governor Toek Songlin.

That night, members of the 32 families who attended the ceremony began fall­ing ill, experiencing symptoms including vomiting, diarrhea and fainting, Mr. Songlin said, adding that 89 villagers had checked into the district referral hospital as of Tuesday morning.

“We sent a sample of the noodles to the laboratory at the provincial health department for testing, but we don’t have the results back yet,” he said. “We have ordered the house where the noodles are made to close temporarily because we are afraid that more people will get poisoned if they buy the noodles.”

Heng Thy, director of the district hospital, said Tuesday evening that 92 villagers had been treated there, with about 30 returning home during the day.

All bars, restaurants and guesthouses along O’Tres Beach near Sihanoukville, and some on neighboring O’Chheuteal Beach, must close up shop within a month or face forced eviction, local officials confirmed on Tuesday.

According to a statement dated February 12 and signed by Preah Sihanouk provincial governor Yon Min, businesses on O’Tres and those on the southern end of O’Chheuteal have until March 13 to move out, citing environmental concerns.

“[A]ll vendors in these…areas must demolish their places of business on these public state beaches between February 13 to March 13. After this date, provincial authorities will take action to clear them by ourselves and will not be responsible for any property destroyed,” the statement said.

“[T]he National Committee for Cambodia Bay Management and Development wants to develop the beaches and wants to improve and take care of the environment,” it added.

Mr. Min on Tuesday blamed the affected businesses for ignoring authorities in the past.

“The authorities have tried to prevent them [from building] for a long time, but they just keep on building,” the governor said. “Now the government wants to im­ple­ment this measure to make the beaches nice. We have to do it and ask them to move.”

Sihanoukville governor Y Sok­leng said only establishments on the beaches would be ordered to close down, and that he was not aware of plans to develop the area once they left.

“Those buildings are close to the sea—the construction should be more than 100 meters away. In fact, when the tide is high, it often touches the buildings,” he said.

“The provincial authorities do not know what will happen after those businesses have gone and whether there will be construction of new hotels. That will be the government’s decision after they decide how many meters from the sea they can build.”

Mr. Sokleng said that although business owners had been asking for monetary compensation in ex­change for moving, they were oc­cupying state land and had never paid taxes for the privilege.

Business owners on O’Tres Beach have reacted to the order with a mix of defiance and fear.

“I’ll tell you what my reaction to this is: It’s that I will stay until they f—king shove me off here,” said Joseph McCourt, co-owner of the Sea Gar­den Bungalows.

“What do these Khmers do now? Take our cooks for instance…three of them have never had a job in their life and they’re well into their 20s. What are they going to do? They’re going to cut thousands [of jobs],” he said.

Koy Chhay, owner of the Bam­boo Bistro, said he was mobilizing about 250 locals to protest against the decision in Phnom Penh on Thursday.

“Every place has many workers and we are living on this business—we depend on it. It makes our living. Without this business, all of our community, all of the work­ers, all will have no jobs and we will be living very poor,” Mr. Chhay said.

“We want our country to be de­veloping, to be clean and nice,” he said. “At the same time, if the people have no jobs, what does that mean for development?”

Deputy provincial governor Chhin Seng Nguon said authorities had considered the economic impact on locals—and decided that the environment took priority.

“The National Committee had concerns about them losing their businesses or jobs,” he said. “But this will have big advantages for everyone in the country.”

With Cambodian-American protesters sequestered on a street away from the Sunnylands resort in southern California, Prime Minister Hun Sen greeted U.S. President Barack Obama and posed for a handshake free from harassment on Monday before the start of a two-day U.S.-Asean summit.

The protest, organized by the Cambodia-America Alliance, an activist group based in North Carolina, went ahead following weeks of buildup during which supporters of the ruling CPP warned of a violent response if the demonstration took place.

US President Barack Obama greets Prime Minister Hun Sen on the first day of the US-Asean summit in Rancho Mirage, California, on Monday. (Reuters)

Despite the threats, which included allusions to the vicious beat­ing of two opposition lawmakers outside the National Assembly in Phnom Penh in October, Tuesday’s reaction to the protest was limited, mostly due to disputes over its size.

Veasna Roeun, vice president of the Cambodia-America Alliance, said that at its peak the protest in Rancho Mirage, California, numbered more than a thousand people, most of them from Cambodian communities in the U.S. and Canada.

“We are looking at a combined total of at least 1,500,” Mr. Roeun said, adding that “a good 80 percent” were from the Cambodian diaspora, the remainder being Thai, Vietnamese, Rohingya and anti-Trans-Pacific Partnership demonstrators.

Photographs of the demonstration showed protesters standing behind barricades hoisting signs railing against Mr. Hun Sen and his government’s rights record. One read “Cambodian Lives Matter,” another “America = Democracy, Cambodia = ‘Dumb’mocracy.” Yet another read “Hun Sen is a Killer.”

Protesters demonstrate against Prime Minister Hun Sen outside the Sunnylands resort in Rancho Mirage, California, on Monday. (Reuters)

“The main message is that we are fed up with the 35 years of no transparency, of 35 years of authoritarian government, of dictatorial rule,” Mr. Roeun said. “We want to see responsible government, and we don’t think we are going to get that while Hun Sen is sitting in power.”

Contradicting Mr. Roeun’s estimate of the crowd size, CPP spokes­man Sok Eysan said his own sources, which he refused to name, informed him that the activist had oversold the number of Cambodian-Americans in attendance—by about 900 people.

“The information I’ve received is that they would have needed 940 more people to meet a number of 1,000 demonstrators,” Mr. Eysan said.

“This proves that they were met with failure because there were only 50 to 60 people who joined the protest,” he said, dismissing the notion that the Cambodian diaspora was generally unhappy with Mr. Hun Sen.

“The most noticeable thing was that anti-Thai government demonstrators greeted and thanked Sam­dech Techo Hun Sen for sup­porting the fight for democracy in Thailand,” he said.

Saing Song, a CPP supporter who promised on Sunday to stage counterdemonstrations against the CNRP if the Cambodian-American activists went ahead with their pro­test, echoed Mr. Eysan. He said the protest had been too small to warrant a response, even though he claimed to have seen CNRP activists in the crowd.

US President Barack Obama and the leaders of Asean’s 10 member states gather during the first day of the US-Asean summit at the Sunnylands resort in Rancho Mirage, California, on Monday. (Reuters)

“We just saw that there were around 200 Cambodian protesters and it seemed like a very small pro­test,” said Mr. Song, who identified himself as leader of a group called Youth Alliance and CPP Supporters.

“Since it’s just a small protest that doesn’t have an impact on or pressure the government of Sam­dech Techo, we decided to call off the plan,” he said.

On Monday, Morn Phalla, head of the CNRP’s executive committee in Phnom Penh, sent a letter to municipal authorities requesting additional security, specifically citing Mr. Song’s promises of counter­demonstrations made in a Face­book post.

On Tuesday, CNRP lawmaker Ou Chanrith said his party remained on alert despite Tuesday’s calm, having seen no effort by authorities to increase security at CNRP headquarters.

With no response from the Ministry of Interior and City Hall, he said party activists had been dispatched both to deputy opposition leader Kem Sokha’s home in Tuol Kok district and to party headquarters for added protection.

“We’ll have to wait and see for a few more days and will take our precautions,” Mr. Chanrith said. “We still have to be careful.”