Activists call for probe into decision to close Khmer Rouge case

Bandit You Bunleng and Herr Doktor Siegfried Blunk involved in JUDICIAL MISCONDUCT?

Jun 14, 2011
DPA

Phnom Penh - An organization monitoring Cambodia's Khmer Rouge tribunal said Tuesday the United Nations must examine the court's decision to close the investigation into its highly politicized third case.

The Open Society Justice Initiative, which is funded by US billionaire George Soros, said the step was essential in order to restore public trust in the UN-backed tribunal.

The group said the investigating judges had failed to examine fully the 'allegations of mass murder and other atrocities' against the suspects in Case Three - a case the Cambodian government has repeatedly said it would not permit to proceed to trial.

The suspects, whom the court has not named, were senior Khmer Rouge military officers and are suspected of involvement in thousands of deaths.

An investigation was needed since 'recent actions and omissions' by the investigating judges 'raise serious questions, including the possibility of gross negligence in the performance of - or that the judges knowingly acted in contravention of - their judicial duties,' the OSJI said.

The UN has not yet commented. Tribunal spokeswoman Yuko Maeda said Tuesday the judges had no comment.

The investigating judges - Germany's Siegfried Blunk and Cambodia's You Bunleng - announced their decision to close Case Three on April 29.

In subsequent public comments international prosecutor Andrew Cayley indicated he believed the investigation was deficient.

Cayley listed a number of omissions, including the investigating judges' failure to question the two suspects or to visit sites where the alleged crimes had taken place.

The OSJI said the court's actions when combined with the government's opposition to Case Three and to Case Four, which involves another three ex-Khmer Rouge, 'suggest that the outcome of (each) case has been pre-determined.'

On Monday the Cambodia Daily newspaper said several international staff in the investigating judges' office had quit following disagreements over the decision to close Case Three.

One of them was Stephen Heder, an expert on the Khmer Rouge movement who was employed as a consultant. In his May 5 resignation email, Heder said he had quit because the judges had decided to close the case 'effectively without investigating it, which I, like others, believe was unreasonable.'

In late May the UN rejected allegations it had interfered with investigations at the tribunal or put any pressure on any court officials to scupper the cases.

The court's second case, against four senior surviving leaders of the movement, is scheduled to begin June 27. More than 2 million people are thought to have died during the Khmer Rouge's rule from 1975 to 1979.