Closing Order of Case 002 against Senior KR Leaders Nuon Chea, Khieu Samphan, Ieng Sary, Ieng Thirith

In light of the HISTORIC (!) start of MOST COMPLEX (sic!) trial hearings beginning on 27 June 2011 and again ANOTHER HISTORIC (!) START of this same MOST COMPLEX (sic!) on 21 Nov. 2011 of Case 002 against the surviving Khmer Rouge senior leaders Nuon Chea, Khieu Samphan, Ieng Sary and Ieng Thirith, KI Media is posting installations of the public document of the Closing Order of Case 002.  The Closing Order of the Co-Investigating Judges forms the basic document from which all the parties (Co-Prosecutors, Co-Lead Lawyers for all civil parties, Defense Lawyers) will be making their arguments before the Trial Chamber judges (one Cambodian President, 2 Cambodian Judges, 2 UN judges).  Up until now, the hearings involving these four surviving senior Khmer Rouge leaders have been in the Pre-Trial Chamber over issues of pre-trial detention and jurisdictional issues.  Beginning in June 2011, the Trial Chamber will hear the substantive (sic!) arguments over the criminal charges (e.g. genocide, crimes against humanity, penal code of 1956 - sic!).  Available in Khmer and French. Contact the ECCC for a free copy. 

 

CLOSING ORDER

of Co-Investigating Judges You Bunleng and Marcel Lemonde

15 September 2010

 

 Kok Kduoch Security Centre

 

Interrogation

680. Interrogations at Kok Kduoch were conducted through three interrogators and one secretary and lasted approximately one hour to one hour and a half.²⁹⁵⁵ Prisoners were asked about their biographies and their alleged links to Vietnamese networks.²⁹⁵⁶ Confessions would be taken down in writing and sent to the district committee whilst one copy remained at Kok Kduoch.²⁹⁵⁷ Members from the district office were occasionally seen to be present during the interrogations.²⁹⁵⁸ At Prasral, witnesses report that prisoners were not generally interrogated: many had come from Kok Kduoch where they had already been interrogated.²⁹⁵⁹

681. Both former prisoners and guards at Kok Kduoch state that during interrogations serious mistreatment²⁹⁶⁰ was used regularly, including: beatings, the use of electric wire and whips.²⁹⁶¹ One witness states that during interrogations he attended prisoners urinated or defecated themselves and bled or even fell into a state of coma²⁹⁶²

Executions

682. Witnesses state that prisoners were taken away and subsequently never seen again.²⁹⁶³ Prisoners who were taken away were the serious offenders.²⁹⁶⁴ One witness states that members of the Sambo District Committee who were accused of treason were executed at Kok Kduoch.²⁹⁶⁵ Several corroborating accounts state that prisoners were taken away by security guards at night²⁹⁶⁶ sometimes using trucks.²⁹⁶⁷

683. Witnesses assert that there was a killing site on the grounds of Kok Kduoch.²⁹⁶⁸ One saw the bodies of executed individuals, and had to then bury them in a site 500 metres from the security Centre.²⁹⁶⁹ The same witness was later transferred to Prasral where he had to bury another 89 bodies mostly bodies of new people who had either been shot or had been beaten to death.²⁹⁷⁰

684.                  Three pits were discovered in 1979 at the Kok Kduoch site, each measuring approximately 2 metres by 5 metres.²⁹⁷¹ Clothing was found under the trees near the north end pit as well as two clubs and two hoes under the trees next to the two pits at the south end of the security Centre.²⁹⁷²

***

685.                  Six (6) civil parties were declared admissible with regards to Kok Kduoch Security Center²⁹⁷³, since the alleged crimes described in the application were considered as being more likely than not to be true, pursuant to Internal Rule 23 bis (4). These civil parties have provided sufficient elements tending to establish prima facie personal harm as a direct consequence of the crimes committed at Kok Kduoch Security Center.