Meas Muth requests counsel in Khmer Rouge court

Former Khmer Rouge naval commander Meas Muth speaks to reporters from the Post in 2009. Photograph: Heng Chivoan/Phnom Penh Post

Thursday, 16 August 2012
Stuart White
The Phnom Penh Post

“It all depends on what happens when Harmon gets here, whether he decides to validate the findings of [stymied reserve co-investigating Judge Laurent] Kasper-Ansermet and starts a dispute – a legal dispute – with the national counsel and re-opens an investigation”

Meas Muth, former commander of the Khmer Rouge navy and a reported suspect in the tribunal’s Case 003, has formally requested legal counsel from the court, his newly appointed attorney said yesterday.

Ang Udom, who also represents Ieng Sary in Case 002, confirmed that he had accepted his appointment to represent Meas Muth, but declined to comment on the particulars of the case.

Meas Sophors, 24, Meas Muth’s son, acknowledged that his father has sought legal counsel, but said that he still trusts that government opposition to the controversial cases 003 and 004 will keep his father from court.

“To me, I still believe in the government, which said there will be no Case 003 or 004, which might include my father,” Sophors told the Post. “In the future, if my father is arrested [by the tribunal], we will have nothing to bargain. My father is ready for that; he is ready to co-operate with the court. He will not escape.”

cision on personal jurisdiction and investigative policy regarding suspect [in Case 003]

http://www.box.com/s/b21f78a6d547af27a890

Departing Tribunal Judge Calls Two More Suspects ‘Most Responsible’

Swiss judge Laurent Kasper-Ansermet is expected to leave the Khmer Rouge tribunal on Friday. (Photo: Courtesy of ECCC)

Thursday, 03 May 2012
Kong Sothanarith, VOA Khmer | Phnom Penh

“We’re still waiting for a new appointment of new judges [to see] whether this can move on.”

Swiss judge Laurent Kasper-Ansermet is expected to leave the Khmer Rouge tribunal Friday, following a turbulent run as international investigating judge that critics say underscored high-level political interference at the UN-backed court.

Before leaving, however, the judge issued his own decisions on two suspects of a potential third case at the court, saying former navy chief Meas Muth and former air force chief Sou Met were among those “most responsible” for the crimes of the Khmer Rouge and should therefore be prosecuted by the court.

The widely publicized names were redacted from the official decision, which was not signed off on by his counterpart, judge You Bunleng. The court’s mandate is to pursue only those suspects considered “most responsible” for the crimes of the Khmer Rouge. Kasper-Ansermet said in his decisions the tribunal had the duty to bring the two men to justice.

Meas Muth, Sou Met among ‘most responsible’: judge

Meas Muth (Photo: The Phnom Penh Post)

Thursday, 03 May 2012
Bridget Di Certo
The Phnom Penh Post

Suspects in government-opposed Case 003, former navy commander Meas Muth and air force commander Sou Met, are among those most responsible for the crimes committed during the Democratic Kampuchea regime, the office of the co-investigating judges decided on Tuesday.

The decisions were stamped by international reserve Co-Investigating Judge Laurent Kasper-Ansermet alone, without the seal of his Cambodian counterpart.

The decisions also symbolize the final judicial acts of Kasper-Ansermet, who steps down from his office tomorrow.

He quit the court in March citing egregious dysfunctions within the ECCC.

“The judicial investigation conducted by the Office of the Co-Investigating Judges has thus established that Suspect [Redacted] may be considered as one of the persons most responsible for the crimes enumerated in the Co-Prosecutors’ Second Introductory Submission,” Kasper-Ansermet wrote in his decision.

Carr gives $1.6m to UN tribunal rocked by resignations

Meas Muth (Photo: The Phnom Penh Post)

March 28, 2012
Lindsay Murdoch
smh.com.au

THE Foreign Minister, Bob Carr, has pledged a further $1.61 million of taxpayers' money to a United Nations tribunal that is set to allow a Khmer Rouge commander who sent two Australians to their deaths to escape justice.

Senator Carr pledged the money days after the tribunal was rocked by the resignation of the Swiss judge Laurent Kasper-Ansermet, who had been blocked from pursuing prosecutions of former Khmer Rouge commanders, including Meas Muth, a former navy commander.

Meas Muth, now in his 70s, sent the yachtsmen Ronald Keith Dean and David Lloyd Scott to Cambodia's notorious Tuol Sleng interrogation centre where they were tortured and killed in 1978.

Defence wants Meas Muth on stand

Former Khmer Rouge navy commander Meas Muth speaks to the Post in 2009. (Heng Chivoan/Phnom Penh Post)

Friday, 17 February 2012
The Phnom Penh Post

Khmer Rouge Navy commander Meas Muth, an alleged suspect in government-opposed Case 003, is on a list compiled by the Khmer Rouge tribunal Trial Chamber as a witness who can address the communication and administrative structures of the Khmer Rouge.

Accused regime leader Nuon Chea’s defence counsel yesterday requested that Meas Muth be summoned to present oral testimony in the courtroom.

“Where witness statements go to the acts or conduct of the accused or pivotal issues in the case, the makers of those statements, where available, should be present in the court room,” defence counsel Andrew Ianuzzi said.

“Meas Muth, as we all know now, is a suspect in case three … is a witness on the list to communications structure.”

Charges against Khmer Rouge chiefs dropped [-Comic operetta at the KRT opera house!!!]

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen. Photo: AFP

January 7, 2012
Lindsay Murdoch
The Sydney Morning Herald

THE Khmer Rouge commander who sent two Australian yachtsmen to Cambodia's notorious Tuol Sleng interrogation centre where they were tortured and killed in 1978 will escape justice at a United Nations tribunal in Phnom Penh.

Meas Muth, now in his 70s, was chief of the Khmer Rouge navy when his men captured Ronald Keith Dean and David Lloyd Scott after their yacht had strayed into Cambodian waters at a time the world was still unaware of a reign of terror under fanatical Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot.

The UN tribunal is set to drop charges against Meas Muth and Sou Met, the Khmer Rouge's air force chief, despite evidence of their crimes against humanity following the intervention of Cambodian strongman Hun Sen, a former Khmer Rouge cadre.

Prime Minister Hun Sen has told the UN he will not allow any further trials at the tribunal after the conclusion of hearings against five ageing Khmer Rouge leaders.

Pol Pot's Abandoned Airport

A Runway to nowwhere

All that's left of the airport complex

Farmers harvest rice where the airport was supposed to be

China’s long arm reached into Cambodia, then mysteriously withdrew

Thursday, 22 December 2011
Written by James Pringle
Asia Sentinel

Nowadays, Meas Muth is a high level adviser to Hun Sen's Defence Ministry, and, like others in that position, is said to be a rich man.

The vast 'secret' military airfield at Kampong Chhnang in central Cambodia, built with slave labor by Pol Pot's forces, may become a key element in the Khmer Rouge Tribunal, should the chiefs of the late tyrant's air force and navy be tried -- over the opposition to such a process by Cambodia's strongman, Prime Minister Hun Sen.

Such problems seem far from this mammoth base, just 5 kilometers from national route highway 5, near the port of Kampong Chhnang on the Tonle Sap river, 60 km northwest of Phnom Penh.

Hun Sen, a former Khmer Rouge who defected to Vietnam, told UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon last year that he would not allow prosecutions beyond the present case, known as 002, of the three senior and ageing leaders of the Khmer Rouge who have been in the dock. The tribunal is empowered to prosecute 'senior leaders' and 'those most responsible' for crimes committed in what was then Democratic Kampuchea.

The possible 'case 003,' calls for the arrest and trial of Khmer Rouge air force chief Sou Met, and navy commander Meas Muth, both around 70, who would be next in the dock once the present process against the top three leaders - now adjourned for the seasonal break - is complete. The new case comes under the category of 'those most responsible' for crimes.' (A possible further case, 004, involves three more Khmer Rouge cadres, one a woman, of lesser rank).

Former KR cadre speaks out

Yem Sam-on, a former Khmer Rouge cadre who worked as a naval mechanic, speaks to the Post yesterday on the sidelines of the Khmer Rouge tribunal, on the outskirts of Phnom Penh. (Photo by: Heng Chivoan)

Tuesday, 06 December 2011
Cheang Sokha
The Phnom Penh Post

For former Khmer Rouge cadre Yem Sam-on, it is clear that his former superior is a criminal who should be prosecuted by the Khmer Rouge tribunal.

Speaking in the large, open-air cafeteria of the tribunal yesterday on the first day of evidence hearings in Case 002, the 61-year-old former naval mechanic described how working life under former Khmer Rouge Navy Commander Meas Muth was one filled with constant fear.

“I worked directly under Meas Muth who was my supervisor at the time,” Yem Sam-on, who resides in Kampot province’s Chumkiri district, said. “Me, the cadres – we were all afraid of him and the power he had in the regime.

“I do believe that Meas Muth has a large share of the responsibility for the crimes committed during the [Khmer Rouge regime],” he said.

Group calls for KRT probe

Co-investigating judges You Bunleng (left) and Siegfried Blunk shake hands in December 2010 in Phnom Penh. (Photo by: Eccc)

Thursday, 22 September 2011
Bridget di Certo
The Phnom Penh Post

A key Khmer Rouge Tribunal monitoring body has again called for the United Nations to conduct an independent investigation into allegations that the co-investigating judges at the tribunal are deliberately stymieing investigations into cases 003 and 004.

Referring to a recent decision by Co-Investigating Judges Siegfried Blunk and You Bunleng to deny victim status to an apparently legitimate applicant in Case 003, the Open Society Justice Initiative has reiterated recommendations it made to the UN in June to examine “questions of judicial independence, misconduct, and competency” of the two co-investigating judges.

The woman – whose spouse was executed by the Khmer Rouge – was granted victim participation rights in Case 002 on the basis of the same facts in her Case 003 application.

Scenes From a Khmer Rouge Trial Gone Wrong

"Brother Number Two" Nuon Chea attends a hearing for former Khmer Rouge leaders on the outskirts of Phnom Penh / Reuters

Sep 21 2011
By Julia Wallace
The Atlantic

"I have no intention of going to court. I'm happy because I feel protected by the government, especially Prime Minister Hun Sen." - Im Chaem

The UN-backed trial is faltering under corruption and infighting, leaving Cambodians to wonder if they will ever see justice

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia -- Sem Hoeurn spent three years, eight months and 20 days of her childhood a virtual slave in the service of a government she knew only as Angkar -- the Organization.

Hoeurn was 10 years old when the paranoid and murderous Khmer Rouge marched into Phnom Penh, seized power, and attempted to engineer an "awesomely great leap forward" that ultimately led to the deaths of some 1.7 million people. She was conscripted into a children's labor unit and ordered to collect piles of bones from execution sites to dispose of in nearby rice paddies. By the time the regime was ousted nearly four years later in 1979, Hoeurn's father and brothers had all been tortured and executed by Angkar, which had the all-seeing "eyes of a pineapple," as one revolutionary dictum had it.

But this summer, along with hundreds of other victims of the regime, Hoeurn finally caught a glimpse of the aged and ailing remnants of Angkar in person for the first time as they shuffled into the dock at the UN-backed Khmer Rouge tribunal, where a landmark trial against the Khmer Rouge regime's four senior-most surviving leaders began on June 27. The eyes of the Cambodian people were at last on them.

"When I first saw the four accused, the bitter memory of mass killing under the Pol Pot regime came back to my mind," Hoeurn said. "I wanted to run into them and tear them apart."

KR navy commander defiant

Former Khmer Rouge navy commander Meas Mut speaks to reporters from the Post in 2009. (Photo by: Heng Chivoan)

Friday, 09 September 2011
May Titthara and Thomas Miller
The Phnom Penh Post

“One main thing that all people who live in this world need is happiness ... If you give someone happiness, other people will give you happiness in return.” - Meas Mut, a Khmer Rouge who sent people to be killed is now being hounded for his past bad deed

Battambang province

Meas Mut hung in a shaded hammock at his expansive, secluded home in Battambang province’s Samlot district, wearing only drawers and a white short-sleeve shirt, a well-worn book of Buddhist teachings in his hands.

The former Khmer Rouge navy commander, now 72, sat up to accept the greeting that had pierced the languor of his mid-morning. He pulled a pair of olive-green trousers off the wooden floorboards, buckled his belt and gestured toward a thick, polished wooden table with high-backed chairs.

Meas Mut, who has been named by activists and in media reports as a suspect in the Khmer Rouge tribunal’s third case, appeared agitated by allegations he had heard against him, but defiant nonetheless.

Wrapping a thick wad of tobacco into green tree leaves, he demanded to know what evidence existed against him and insisted that his prosecution would reignite Khmer Rouge resistance.

“If the five of us flee into the jungle, how many people will follow us?” he said, referring to suspects in cases 003 and 004.

Former Khmer Rouge Deny War Crimes Charges (VOA)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTBFpAzJ4-c

Former Khmer Rouge Deny War Crimes Charges

Ta An (Photo: The Phnom Penh Post)

Im  Chaem

Meas Muth (Photo: The Phnom Penh Post)

August 31, 2011
Sok Khemara, VOA Khmer | Battambang, Cambodia

The world is watching as citizens in some Middle Eastern countries seek justice against recently toppled leaders of sometimes brutal governments. In Cambodia, the reign of the Maoist Khmer Rouge ended decades ago, but efforts to bring those responsible to justice continue. Three of those facing prosecution may finally face justice after many years in the Khmer Rouge tribunals.

Ta An is accused of being part of a killing campaign during the Khmer Rouge's rule in the late 1970s.

But he denied overseeing genocide. He said he was transferred to Kompong Cham province, where some 150,000 died, after the killing took place.

“When I arrived, that was finished already, from the bottom up to the highest levels. I focused on re-organizing new villages and communes. I was not involved in anything at all,” he said.

[Khmer Rouge] Suspect Questions 'Most Responsible' Tribunal Mandate

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TbNu_zw83o&feature=channel_video_title

“So the source and the main master of the Khmer Rouge was first the US, and second, Samdech Euv”: Comrade Meas Muth

Meas Muth, 71, is a former member of the Khmer Rouge regime’s central committee. In an interview in July, he told VOA Khmer any accusations against him were not legal under the rules of the court. He said that the court should not try more than the five Khmer Rouge leaders currently in custody and warned against instability if more cadre are indicted. (Photo: VOA Khmer)

Suspect Questions ‘Most Responsible’ Tribunal Mandate

Tuesday, 16 August 2011
Sok Khemara, VOA Khmer | Battambang Province

“The law is limited [to the five people]. If more is done beyond that figure, what happens to the law?” (sic!)

Taking up a defense that Khmer Rouge tribunal investigating judges have already alluded to, atrocity crimes suspect Meas Muth said in a recent interview that accusations against him by prosecution fall out of the mandate of the UN-backed court.

Investigating judges Siegfried Blunk and You Bunleng said in a statement earlier this month that they have doubts about whether five suspects named by prosecutors for potential indictments fall under the court’s mission to prosecute those “most responsible” for Khmer Rouge atrocities.

Meas Muth was recently named as a suspect by the Christian Science Monitor and on the New Zealand website Scoop. Scoop published introductory submission documents by prosecutors in the court’s Case 003 that were also obtained by VOA Khmer.

According to the prosecution, Meas Muth was the secretary of Division 164 of the Khmer Rouge military and was a member of the regime’s central committee or an assistant central committee, which included military and political party responsibilities. Prosecutors say this put him in the “superior echelons” of the regime, since only the Standing Committee was higher.

Prosecutors say Meas Muth and another suspect, Sou Met, were responsible for crimes including “forced labour, inhumane living conditions, unlawful arrest and detention, physical and mental abuse, torture and killing.”

A last stand

Local patriarch: Meas Mut during an interview at his home in Samlot, a former Khmer Rouge stronghold close to the Thai border

"I am not interested with the Khmer Rouge court, because everything is already over" - Khieu Moeun, former Khmer Rouge soldier

As Cambodia's war crimes tribunal battles accusations of political interference in its inner workings, a suspect in a politically sensitive future case pleads his innocence

Monday, July 04, 2011
by Sebastian Strangio
Southeast Asia Globe (Cambodia)

At the height of the monsoon season, Ta Sanh Cheung village, like thousands across Cambodia, blazes with emerald green. Its main road – really more of a rutted track – coils through walls of lush foliage framing a line of square wooden homes and the occasional field of maize, scraped away to reveal patches of pitch-black earth.

The village lies in Samlot district in Cambodia's west, a former stronghold of the communist Khmer Rouge and flashpoint of the country's decades-long civil war. Today, it remains one of the most heavily mined regions on the planet: an estimated 3% of its residents are amputees.

At a quiet end of Ta Sanh Cheung village stands a three-storey wooden home, topped with satellite dishes and blue ceramic tiles – a lavish residence by local standards. The home's owner is Meas Mut, the former commander of the Khmer Rouge navy.

Hamill’s lawyers on warpath

Rob Hamill talks to reporters from the Post in August, 2009. (Photo by: Sovan Philong)

Thursday, 21 July 2011
Thomas Miller
The Phnom Penh Post

Attorneys for former Olympic rower Rob Hamill have appealed against what they describe as an “absolutely shocking” decision by the Khmer Rouge tribunal’s co-investigating judges to reject his application for civil-party status in the court’s controversial third case.

Civil party lawyer Lyma Nguyen said in a statement yesterday the co-investigating judges’ grounds of rejection were “absolutely shocking, drafted very poorly and completely surprising”.

She urged the international community to hold the court accountable for the “poor legal quality” of the order and the “blatant contempt depicted against victims and civil party applicants by the co-investigating judges”.

Hamill, a New Zealander, was accepted as a civil party in Cases 001 and 002.

His brother Kerry and two other foreigners were captured by the Khmer Rouge in 1978 after accidentally sailing into Cambodian waters. Kerry was tortured and later executed at the notorious S-21 prison.

Nguyen said yesterday Hamill’s application for civil-party status was “clearly in the scope of investigations” for Case 003.

Sheen Comes Off Khmer Rouge Trial [-TRAVESTY of justice by the UN in collusion with Hun Xen?]

After a handshake between Hun Xen and Ban Ki-moon, the KR trials will disappear into oblivion?

July 10, 2011
By James O’Toole
The Diplomat

In a political climate as authoritarian as Cambodia’s, it’s likely unrealistic to believe that the will of well-intentioned international lawyers will prevail over the entrenched views of the government. The court’s international donors, meanwhile, have been publicly silent on the matter, amid suggestions that they may be reluctant to fund the chronically cash-strapped institution for several more years.

The first stage of Cambodia’s Case 002 is over. But will Hun Sen stamp out the prospects of more people being held to account?

The courtroom on the dusty outskirts of the Cambodian capital may have been hosting what has been described as ‘the most important trial in the world.’ But the sheen is already coming off a case aimed at holding to account four accused of being closely involved in the deaths of more than 2 million people during the Khmer Rouge’s reign in the 1970s.

The problems in the UN-backed case centre on additional investigations pending at the tribunal. Although prosecutors have said they will pursue just two more cases beyond the current ‘Case 002’, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen has already come out strongly against doing so, reportedly telling UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon last year that Cases 003 and 004 ‘will not be allowed.’

Now, it appears UN court staff may be bowing to this political meddling, raising uncomfortable questions for a court that was established in part to combat Cambodia’s culture of impunity.

‘There’s no question that this is a crucial moment in the court’s history,’ says Clair Duffy, a trial monitor with the Open Society Justice Initiative. ‘Judicial independence is an issue that goes to the heart of this institution, and not something that just relates to Cases 003 and 004.’

Leaked Documents Suggest UN Backing Off Khmer Rouge Trials

Monday, 27 June 2011
Article: Selwyn Manning

Leaked Documents Suggest UN Backing Off Khmer Rouge Genocide Trials

Report – By Selwyn Manning and Alastair Thompson.

Scoop Media, New Zealand: Documents leaked to Scoop suggest the United Nations-led tribunal may be backing off fully investigating crimes committed by the Khmer Rouge during the period from 1975 through to January 1979.

The documents show attempts by the Co-Investigating Judges, You Bunleng and Siegfried Blunk, to exclude testimonial information of New Zealand national Rob Hamill from being considered as evidence in Tribunal investigations.

[Scoop Editor's Note: The documents (see links to pdf files below) were not leaked by Rob Hamill, nor Keith Locke. The source will remain confidential.]

On Thursday June 23 2011, Scoop understands the documents were given to the New Zealand Parliament's foreign affairs select committee by New Zealand Green Party MP, Keith Locke. It is unclear whether the Foreign Affairs select committee will accept the documents or allow public access to the documents.

Scoop has decided to publish the documents on the basis that they are highly important from a justice point of view, also due to the fact that the decisions made by the two Co-Investigating Judges relate to the murder of a New Zealand national, Kerry Hamill, by members of the Khmer Rouge regime.

The Judges' decisions (contained in the documents) communicate a ruling on how relevant, from an evidential viewpoint, are victim impact testimonies. In particular the Judges have rejected an application by Rob Hamill to give testimony to Case 03 and 04 on the basis that the crimes committed by the Khmer Rouge against his brother did not “directly” affect Rob Hamill.

Clearly, these issues are matters of high public and national interest.

Document 1 (pdf) details the application of New Zealand national Rob Hamill requesting to be party to the proceedings in Case 003 and Case 004 “for the injury he suffered as the alleged direct consequence of crimes... further to the death of his brother Kerry Hamill.

The Co-Investigating Judges ruled out Rob Hamill's application due to their definition of the word 'directly', stating that they “cannot follow the reasoning... that the applicant has shown that his 'harm was a direct consequence of the crimes...'”

The Judges also state in the documents that they were “aware that they admitted the Applicant as a Civil Party in Case 002...” but that their earlier decision regarding Case 002 was “not binding”.

Scoop understands that there are moves for Case 003 and 004 to be concluded or abandoned, perhaps without full and relevant evidence being admissible nor examined. As this aspect of the Tribunal's considerations involves a New Zealand national, Scoop believes it is vital that Rob Hamill's application to have his testimony considered be accepted and be relevant to proceedings.

Document 2 (pdf) and Document 3 (pdf) detail the reasons for the Co-Investigating Judges' decision.

Other documents (Cambodia Second-Introductory Submission.redacted.pdf and Cambodia-Third Introductory Submission.redacted.pdf) published here are important as they provide a summary of crimes committed by the Khmer Rouge during its reign of terror in Democratic Kampuchea (later renamed Cambodia) between 1975 and 1979. Millions died as a result of the Khmer Rouge's extreme policies which have been deemed crimes against humanity.

The Introductory Submissions summarise the Khmer Rouge era as:

From 17 April 1975 until 6 January 1979, the Communist Party of Kampuchea (CPK), commonly referred to as the Khmer Rouge, sought to fundamentally alter Cambodian society along ideological lines through forcible economic and social change. As set forth in the Co-Prosecutor’s First Introductory Submission dated 18 July 2007 (paragraphs 5 through 10), a common criminal plan existed amongst CPK leaders to establish a classless, atheistic and ethnically homogenous society, abolishing all ethnic, national, religious, class and cultural differences.

The CPK’s criminal policies called for the evacuation of cities, and the virtual enslavement of the entire population of Democratic Kampuchea (DK) in ruthlessly run and inhumane agricultural co-operatives, factories and worksites. Anything or anyone that the CPK perceived as a threat or an obstacle to its policies and ideology would be killed or destroyed, including all religions, ethnic differences, the “feudalist,” “capitalist,” and “bourgeoisie” classes and all perceived “enemies” or “traitors” in the population or amongst the CPK cadre.