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 (Indictment).  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

Regulation of Marriage

Following the Marriage Ceremony

858. With respect to the consummation of marriage, one civil party interviewed stated that she did not dare to refuse to have sexual intercourse with her husband because the unit chief would have beaten her if she did because she saw this happen to another woman in her unit.³⁶³⁶ Several witness stated that consummation of marriage was monitored by militias.³⁶³⁷ One witness stated that a cadre told her that couples who refused would be sent to prison.³⁶³⁸ Some people committed suicide because of these reasons.³⁶³⁹ Another states that three days after the ceremony the unit chief told her to stay with her husband. She was very scared of her husband and there were militiamen eavesdropping below the house so she was forced to have sex with her husband.³⁶⁴⁰ Another witness stated that couples were not monitored³⁶⁴¹ and Duch further stated that "[t]o my knowledge there were no measures to organise surveillance but some immoral cadre spied on the married people to find out whether they were sleeping together (this was independent of the problem offorced marriages). I remember in particular, the case of Comrade Pang, regimental secretary and later secretary of the Military Hospital 98 Committee, who asked his subordinates to spy on married people to see if they were sleeping together. He was punished for this: he was first made to apologize to the married couples in question and then, as there were other allegations against him, he was arrested, transferred to S-21 and executed'.³⁶⁴²

859.           With respect to whether people were made to stay together after the marriage ceremony, some witnesses state they were made to spend time together immediately after the ceremony³⁶⁴³ before being separated.³⁶⁴⁴ Other witnesses state that they were together for some time after the ceremony and then were made to meet³⁶⁴⁵ more or less frequently³⁶⁴⁶ (sometimes around once a week, sometimes once a month); some appear to have remained together after the ceremony;³⁶⁴⁷ some witnesses state that they are still with their spouses³⁶⁴⁸ whereas others state they separated.³⁶⁴⁹

860.           Some witnesses refer to children born as a result of the marriage.³⁶⁵⁰

***

861.           Six hundred and sixty four (664) civil parties were declared admissible with regards to the policy of the regulation of marriage³⁶⁵¹, 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 crime of forced marriage.