Khmer Rouge Trial Takes Shape

The initial hearings in Cambodia’s Case 002 have closed. The lines of defence to be employed by the four accused of involvement in genocide are becoming clear.

July 01, 2011

By Luke Hunt

The Diplomat

The historic Khmer Rouge tribunal wrapped-up its initial hearings in Case 002 this week, winning widespread praise for its conduct, as a legal strategy emerged for defending Pol Pot’s surviving lieutenants against charges relating to the deaths of up to 2.2 million Cambodians.

Absent were the sometimes shrill cries over investigations surrounding potential future trials and allegations of political interference that had dogged recent weeks at the Extraordinary Chambers for the Courts in Cambodia (ECCC).

Instead, a steady and methodical (at times tedious) legal process emerged as a full bench of International and Cambodian judges, the defence, prosecution and civil parties set about trying senior Khmer Rouge leaders for genocide and crimes against humanity allegedly committed between April 1975 and January 1979.

Tribunal debates pardon granted to former Khmer Rouge leader

June 30, 2011
ABC Radio Australia

The case against four surviving leaders of the Khmer Rouge movement has been underway in Cambodia all week.

One of the key issues to be raised in the early parts of the trial has been a controversial amnesty and pardon granted to the regime's former foreign minister Ieng Sary.

Reporter: Robert Carmichael

Speakers: Michael Karnavas, defence lawyer for Ieng Sary; William Smith, deputy international prosecutor; Clair Duffy, observer for Open Society Justice Initiative.

Click here to listen to the audio program (Windows Media)

CARMICHAEL: In 1996 the Khmer Rouge foreign minister Ieng Sary defected to the Cambodian government. His move precipitated the end of the Khmer Rouge movement.

Ieng Sary's decision was timely -the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 meant that proxy players in the Cold War struggle, such as the Khmer Rouge, ran out of patrons like the United States. Ieng Sary had seen the writing on the wall.

His defection was sweetened by the Cambodian government. Ieng Sary received a royal pardon for the death penalty that a 1979 tribunal in Phnom Penh had handed down to him in absentia. That tribunal had been established in 1979 by the new Cambodian government just months after it drove the Khmer Rouge from power.

Case 002: Day 2

Ieng Sary sits at the Khmer Rouge Tribunal on the outskirts of Phnom Penh today. ECCC/POOL

Tuesday, 28 June 2011
James O'Toole
The Phnom Penh Post

THE Khmer Rouge tribunal continued today with the second day of hearings in the trial of the four most senior surviving leaders of Democratic Kampuchea, with debate focusing largely on the 1996 pardon and amnesty granted to former KR foreign minister Ieng Sary. 

In addition to Ieng Sary and his wife, former KR social action minister Ieng Thirith, the case also features former KR head of state Khieu Samphan and Brother Number 2 Nuon Chea.

For the second day in a row, Nuon Chea left the hearing early in the morning, telling the judges that he would return to the Trial Chamber when his own case was considered. Today’s hearing instead focused on Ieng Sary, who received a pardon signed by then-King Norodom Sihanouk upon defecting to the government in 1996.

Amnesty deal focus of second day of Khmer Rouge trial

Jun 28, 2011
DPA

Phnom Penh - A 1996 amnesty granted to the Khmer Rouge's former foreign minister, Ieng Sary, dominated Tuesday morning's session of a genocide trial against the Maoist movement's four surviving leaders.

Ieng Sary's 1996 defection to the Cambodian government with thousands of troops helped to precipitate the collapse of the Khmer Rouge although the movement had grown increasingly isolated since the end of the Cold War.

His defence team said the court had no jurisdiction to rule on the amnesty granted by the Cambodian government while also arguing it was a valid one.

'National jurisdictions have the capacity to grant amnesties even when we are talking about crimes such as we find in this indictment,' defence lawyer Michael Karnavas told the five judges of the UN-backed Khmer Rouge tribunal on the second day of the trial, which is taking place more than 30 years since the Khmer Rouge was ousted from power.

Amnesty, Double Jeopardy on Agenda for Tribunal Hearing

This combo shows file photos of the four top surviving leaders of the Khmer Rouge regime from left to right: Nuon Chea, the group's ideologist; former head of state and public face of the regime, Khieu Samphan, former Foreign Minister Ieng Sary; and his wife Ieng Thirith, ex-minister for social affairs (Photo: AP file)

Sunday, 26 June 2011
Sok Khemara, VOA Khmer | Washington, DC

“The court has enough competency and enough of a role in Ieng Sary’s case over genocidal crimes, and other crimes…to try him under its jurisdiction.”

In the days leading into the trial of four Khmer Rouge leaders, legal analysts say there are few if any past hindrances to the prosecution that would prevent full proceedings.

The trial for Nuon Chea, Khieu Samphan, Ieng Sary and Ieng Thirith officially begins Monday, when the four senior regime leaders will appear before the Trial Chamber of the UN-backed Khmer Rouge tribunal in a preliminary hearing.

The hearing will tackle some of the tougher questions for moving the proceedings forward for the accused, who are charged with a raft of atrocity crimes, including genocide, in what is expected to be a long, complicated trial, known as Case 002.

In the time since all four were arrested in 2007, defense lawyers have argued that amnesties promised by the government in the late 1990s, which helped dissolve the last of the Khmer Rouge after decades of civil war, would be relevant.

Ieng Sary Lawyers Raise Amnesty Issue

Chaiman Mao (L) with Pol Pot (C) and Ieng Sary (R) during the Khmer Rouge heydays

By Mean Veasna, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
09 April 2008

Lawyers for jailed Khmer Rouge leader Ieng Sary filed a petition to the tribunal courts Monday protesting the legality of a trial due to an earlier royal amnesty.

Lawyer Ang Udom said Wednesday a trial of his client would be illegitimate.

"He cannot be tried for the second time," Ang Udom said. "This is contrary to local and international law, because he has been tried and pardoned by the king."

Ieng Sary was found guilty in absentia of genocide in a trial following the ousting of the Khmer Rouge in 1979. The trial is widely viewed as a show trial.

Ieng Sary defected to the government in 1996, following a royal pardon and amnesty by then king Norodom Sihanouk for the guilty verdict of the Vietnamese trial.

Lawyers argued the amnesty should take precedence over the hybrid courts. However, experts say he can still be charged with war crimes, even if the courts allow the amnesty argument.

Tribunal co-prosecutor Robert Petit confirmed Wednesday receipt of the petition, which said the court had no authority in the Ieng Sary case, due to the royal pardon and amnesty agreement with the government.

"Indeed, we will look at that closely and reply to the lawyers in writing," he said.