ECCC co-investigating judges: Nuon Chea's charges are so grave that, if released, protests of indignation leading to violence would ensue

UN-backed Tribunal In Cambodia Details Charges

Saturday, 22 September 2007
Press Release: United Nations

UN-backed tribunal in Cambodia details charges against ex-Khmer Rouge leader

The former Khmer Rouge leader Nuon Chea faces charges of having planned and ordered the murder, torture and enslavement of civilians during the regime's rule over Cambodia in the late 1970s, according to a statement issued by a United Nations-backed war crimes tribunal today.

The Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), based in the capital Phnom Penh, detailed the charges that Nuon Chea, 81, faces in a statement explaining why it has decided to place him in provisional detention for a year.

You Bunleng and Marcel Lemonde, co-investigating judges of the ECCC, said Nuon Chea - also known as "Brother Number Two" in the Khmer Rouge - was being remanded in custody because he posed a potential threat to witnesses and victims and was also a flight risk.

In addition, the judges said that the charges are so grave that if he were released, it was possible there could be "protests of indignation which could lead to violence and perhaps imperil the very safety of the charged person."

Nuon Chea is charged with crimes against humanity and war crimes over his actions in various senior positions with the Communist Party of Kampuchea between April 1975 and January 1979.

He is alleged to have "planned, instigated, ordered, directed or otherwise aided and abetted in the commission" of numerous crimes against humanity, namely murder, torture, imprisonment, persecution, extermination, deportation, forcible transfer, enslavement and other inhumane acts.

He is also accused of war crimes on the basis of breaches of the 1949 Geneva Conventions, including wilful killing, torture, inhumane acts, wilful deprivation of rights to a fair trial and unlawful confinement.

The statement noted that Nuon Chea disputes the charges, saying that he would be ashamed to have committed such crimes. He contends that all real power during the Khmer Rouge rule was in the hands of its Military Committee, of which he was not a member, and he has also told the court that he also lost 40 family members during the period in question.

In a separate press statement released today, the ECCC announced that Nuon Chea had selected a Cambodian lawyer, Son Arun, to represent him. He said he does not have the means to pay for a lawyer so the work of Mr. Son will be funded by the ECCC until Nuon Chea's claim is assessed.

Under an agreement signed by the UN and Cambodia, the ECCC was set up as an independent court using a mixture of Cambodian staff and judges and foreign personnel. It is designated to try those deemed most responsible for crimes and serious violations of Cambodian and international law between 17 April 1975 and 6 January 1979.

Nuon Chea: The Khmer Rouge regime ""did not have direct contact with [Khmer Rouge] bases" outside Phnom Penh

Nuon Chea Disputes Tribunal Indictments

Chun Sakada, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
21 September 2007

Detained Khmer Rouge ideologue Nuon Chea has denied charges of atrocity crimes leveled against him by the special tribunal, the courts said in a statement Friday.

Nuon Chea is being held by the tribunal in Phnom Penh, following formal charges of crimes against humanity and war crimes.

Nuon Chea told the courts the top leadership of the regime "did not have direct contact with [Khmer Rouge] bases" outside Phnom Penh and "were not aware of what was happening" in them, according to the court detention order, released Friday.

The detention order provides information similar to a US court indictment.

Nuon Chea is alleged to have "planned, instigated, ordered, directed or otherwise aided and abetted" crimes that include "murder, torture, imprisonment, persecution, extermination, deportation, forcible transfer, enslavement," as well as "willfully causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health, willful deprivation or rights to a fair trial, unlawful confinement and unlawful deportation or transfer," the detention order says.

Nuon Chea committed the offenses as deputy secretary of the Communist Party of Kampuchea, a member of the party's Central and Standing committees, chairman of the Democratic Kampuchea People's Assembly, acting prime minister and vice chairman of the party's Center Military Committee, according to the detention order.

"Nuon Chea disputed the crimes with which he is charged, indicating that he would be ashamed to have committed such crimes," the order says.

Nuon Chea told the courts "he never adopted any law allowing citizens to be killed," the order says. "He pointed out that he personally lost around 40 family members during the evnts of the time."

Nuon Chea will be detained for as long as a year, the order says, because the crimes he is alleged to have committed mean his safety and public order might be jeopardized by his release.

Nuon Chea protested his dention, saying he was ready to cooperate with the court.

"He wished to enlighten the Kampuchean people and the whole world concerning the real enemies of Cambodia," the order says, "specifying that he is a patriot and not a coward and that he does not intend to tarnish the honor of his country by fleeing."

Nuon Chea remanded for war crimes

Phnom Penh (dpa) - Former top Khmer Rouge leader Nuon Chea will stay in jail for at least a year facing charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity, the court set up to bring justice to the victims of the regime said Friday.

In a lengthy press statement explaining the charges and the decision, co-investigating judges of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) You Bunleng and Marcel Lemonde issued a provisional detention order against the 82-year-old former Khmer Rouge security chief who is also known as Brother Number 2.

The statement said Nuon Chea was being charged with crimes against humanity which encompasses murder, torture, imprisonment, persecution, extermination, deportation, forcible transfer, enslavement and "other inhumane acts."

War crimes was a charge based on the Geneva Convention and included wilful killing and wilfully causing great suffering or serious injury and wilful deprivation of rights to a fair trial, the statement said.

Co-investigators said they had decided to remand Nuon Chea because he posed a potential threat to witnesses.

"He is alleged to have, throughout Cambodia during the period April 17, 1975 to January 6, 1979 ... planned, instigated, ordered, directed or otherwise aided and abetted in the commission of the aforementioned crimes, by exercising authority and effective control over the internal security apparatus of Democratic Kampuchea," the statement said.

The only other man yet to be charged by the ECCC, former commandant of the notorious S-21 torture centre Duch, or Kang Keng Iev, alleged in 1999 that Nuon Chea instigated much of the killing during the Khmer Rouge's Democratic Kampuchea regime.

Up to 2 million Cambodians died during the reign of the ultra-Maoists.

"The co-prosecutors of the Extraordinary Chambers have requested the provisional detention of Nuon Chea on the grounds that there is a well-founded reason to believe that he participated in the crimes," the statement said.

"(P)rovisional detention is necessary to prevent any pressure on witnesses, especially those who were under his authority, and any destruction of evidence; that detention is also necessary to ensure the presence of the charged person during the proceedings, given the danger of his fleeing, and to protect his safety; and that, finally, it is necessary to preserve public order."

It said Nuon Chea had maintained his innocence, "indicating that he would be ashamed to have committed such crimes and specifying that 'we did not have any direct contact with the bases and we were not aware of what was happening there'."

"In light of the many documents and witness statements implicating Nuon Chea, there are well-founded reasons to believe that he committed the crimes with which he is charged," the co-investigators alleged.

"These crimes are of a gravity such that, 30 years after their commission, they still profoundly disrupt public order to such a degree that it is not excessive to conclude that the release of the charged person risks provoking, in the fragile context of today's Cambodian society, protests of indignation which could lead to violence and perhaps imperil the very safety of the charged."

It said the co-investigators ordered him to be placed in custody for "at least a year" and that he faced life imprisonment if convicted.

Nuon Chea has retained a Cambodian lawyer, Son Arun, and said just prior to his arrest that he planned to fight the charges.

The 56-million-dollar joint UN-Cambodia ECCC is expected to charge at least five people with involvement in one of the bloodiest regimes of the last century.

Former leader Pol Pot died at home in 1998. Former military commander Ta Mok, whom Nuon Chea blames for the crimes he is charged with, died in hospital of age related complications last year.

Cambodian tribunal accuses Khmer Rouge leader of ordering murder, torture of civilians

Friday, September 21, 2007
The Associated Press

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia: Former Khmer Rouge leader Nuon Chea ordered the murder and torture of civilians when the communist group held power in the 1970s, an indictment issued Friday by Cambodia's U.N.-supported genocide tribunal said.

The 82-year-old former Khmer Rouge ideologist was arrested and charged Thursday with crimes against humanity and war crimes in connection with atrocities that caused the deaths of some 1.7 million people during the Khmer Rouge's 1975-79 rule.

The detailed indictment issued Friday by the tribunals co-investigating judges said Nuon Chea "planned, instigated, ordered, directed or otherwise aided and abetted in the commission" of crimes that include "murder, torture, imprisonment, persecution, extermination, deportation, forcible transfer, enslavement and other inhumane acts."