PHNOM PENH — A major Khmer Rouge trial
at Cambodia's UN-backed war crimes court may not hear testimony until
next year, observers said Wednesday, amid fears over the mental health
of one of the defendants.

The trial against four top
leaders of the brutal 1975-79 regime, which began in June, has stalled
after a recent decision by judges to order a psychiatric assessment on
Ieng Thirith, 79.

Anne Heindel, a legal advisor to
the Documentation Centre of Cambodia, which researches Khmer Rouge
atrocities, believes the process to determine mental fitness "is likely
to take until the end of the year".

That view was echoed by a court
official, who told AFP it is "unlikely the trial will get going this
year" but asked not to be named.