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 (or, Indictment). The Closing Order of the Co-Investigating Judges forms the basic document from which all the parties (co-prosecutors, lead co-lawyers for all civil parties, defense lawyers) make 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 November 2011, the Trial Chamber is hearing the substantive (sic!) arguments over the criminal charges   (genocide against Buddhists, genocide against Vietnamese, genocide against Cham Muslims, crimes against humanity at the 200 prisons, mass crimes in countless killing fields, Eastern Zone purges, penal code of 1956, etc.) of only the Phase I Movement in April 1975.

 
 Available in Khmer, English and French. Contact the ECCC for a free copy.  

 

CLOSING ORDER (or, INDICTMENT)

 

of Co-Investigating Judges You Bunleng and Marcel Lemonde

15 September 2010

  PART THREE: LEGAL FINDINGS

 

 II. LEGAL FINDINGS ON MODES OF RESPONSIBILITY

 

A. JOINT CRIMINAL ENTERPRISE

 

1514.       As stated in the "Applicable Law" section of this Closing Order, under international law, Joint Criminal Enterprise (JCE) is a mode of individual criminal responsibility encompassed by the concept of commission. The actus reus elements are that the Charged Person, together with a plurality of persons, contributed or participated in a common purpose which resulted in and/or involved the commission of a crime within the ECCC's jurisdiction. The mens rea for JCE 1 is a shared intent to contribute to or participate in the implementation of a common purpose.

1515.       Criminal responsibility under JCE need not involve the direct commission of a crime, but it may take the form of assistance in, or contribution to, the execution of the common purpose, or aspects of it, resulting in and/or involving the commission of crimes. The contribution need not be necessary or substantial, but at least should be a significant contribution to the commission of crimes on the ground for which the Charged Persons are held responsible.⁵²⁸⁹

1516.       JCE responsibility is a doctrine that applies to a purpose which is aimed at imposing a nationwide government organised system of cruelty and injustice as long as all the elements are established to the evidentiary standard as set out in the section of this Closing Order on "Standard of Evidence".⁵²⁹⁰