Most international criminal courts and tribunals find provisional detention absolutely necessary to ensure the swift delivery of justice. A decision on pre-trial detention must be in conformity with well-recognized human rights standards, thus respecting the person’s right to a fair trial and upholding the presumption of evidence. Although the general assumption in criminal law is that pre-trial detention is the exception and not the rule, a number of factors, such as the gravity of the crimes, as well as heightened flight risk of the accused, appear to have reversed the test employed in international criminal courts and tribunals.

To date, all provisional detention orders against former members of the inner circle of Pol Pot, except for one, have been re-affirmed on appeal in the ECCC. This commentary appraises the ECCC case law on pre-trial detention from the standpoint of its conformity with international human rights standards and exposes serious deficiencies of judicial reasoning in selected decisions of the Court.