J.E. Robertson
Trials of those guilty of unspeakable atrocities in the campaign of terror waged by the ultra-totalitarian Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia are finally underway, 30 years after the crimes of the killing fields were committed.
Reuters reports from Phnom Penh:
The resulting joint tribunal is called the “Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia”. According to Reuters, “Cambodian and foreign judges and prosecutors will work together and try to reach unanimous decisions. If they cannot all agree, then a decision requires a ’super-majority.’”
There are two levels of judicial involvement, the trial process and the “Supreme Court” appeals process. That means that of the Trial Court’s three Cambodian and two foreign judges, four must agree in order to reach a verdict. With four Cambodian and three foreign judges on the Supreme Court, at least five must agree in order to reach a binding verdict.
Only six senior Khmer Rouge figures have been charged so far. The dictator Pol Pot himself died in 1998, and many worry that most of the senior planners and close allies of Pol Pot may die before they are forced to face justice for their horrific crimes. Some have said this could be not only the first, but also the last of the tribunal’s major cases in meting out justice for the reign of terror that lasted four years and took an estimated 2 million lives.
Reuters reports from Phnom Penh:
Pol Pot’s chief torturer took the stand on Monday, charged with crimes against humanity in the first trial of a top Khmer Rouge cadre 30 years after the end of a regime blamed for 1.7 million deaths in Cambodia.At least ten years have passed since the government of Cambodia asked for international assistance in setting up a tribunal to try those accused of Khmer Rouge atrocities. The plan failed to gain momentum in part because Cambodia demanded full control of the trial processes. The result is a UN-sanctioned special tribunal, staffed with international personnel but technically a Cambodian court.
Kaing Guek Eav, known as Duch, faces charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity while chief of the S-21 torture center, where more than 14,000 died during the 1975-79 Khmer Rouge era.
The resulting joint tribunal is called the “Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia”. According to Reuters, “Cambodian and foreign judges and prosecutors will work together and try to reach unanimous decisions. If they cannot all agree, then a decision requires a ’super-majority.’”
There are two levels of judicial involvement, the trial process and the “Supreme Court” appeals process. That means that of the Trial Court’s three Cambodian and two foreign judges, four must agree in order to reach a verdict. With four Cambodian and three foreign judges on the Supreme Court, at least five must agree in order to reach a binding verdict.
Only six senior Khmer Rouge figures have been charged so far. The dictator Pol Pot himself died in 1998, and many worry that most of the senior planners and close allies of Pol Pot may die before they are forced to face justice for their horrific crimes. Some have said this could be not only the first, but also the last of the tribunal’s major cases in meting out justice for the reign of terror that lasted four years and took an estimated 2 million lives.
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