DPA
Phnom Penh - The former 'first lady' of Cambodia's genocidal Khmer Rouge regime told the UN-backed war crimes tribunal on Tuesday her accusers would be 'cursed to the seventh level of hell' for implicating her in the deaths of up to 2 million people three decades ago.
Ieng Thirith, 76, faces charges of crimes against humanity allegedly committed while she was minister for social affairs during the ultra-Maoist Khmer Rouge's 1975-79 reign.
'I am not a murderer, so don't accuse me of murder otherwise you will be cursed to the seventh level of hell,' she shouted in an incensed closing statement to the court.
'I am here to speak the truth and tell you I have done nothing wrong.'
The former English literature professor was in the Phnom Penh court to appeal an extension of her pre-trial detention, but originally ordered her lawyers to speak on her behalf because she was 'too weak' to deliver her plea.
Cambodian co-defence lawyer Phat Pouv Seng said the investigating judges had insufficient evidence to warrant Ieng Thirith's detention.
'No additional evidence linking Ieng Thirith to crimes committed during the period has been added to the case file since she was placed in pre-trial detention in November 2007,' he said.
But prosecutors argued that three years of pre-trial detention was permissible according to international standards and said a suspension could lead to civil unrest and put Ieng Thirith's safety at risk.
Judges are expected to announce a ruling on the appeal later this week.
Five former Khmer Rouge leaders, including Ieng Thirith's husband and former foreign minister Ieng Sary, are currently facing trial for their roles in deaths of up to 2 million people through execution, starvation and overwork.
The group sought to transform Cambodian society into an agrarian-socialist utopia, erase history and start at 'year zero.'
The first stage of the trial of former Tuol Sleng torture facility chairman Kaing Guek Eav, known by his revolutionary name Duch, was held last week.
The Khmer Rouge tribunal announced on Monday that Duch's trial would resume on March 31.
He is the first detainee to be indicted for crimes against humanity.
Ieng Thirith, who is the sister-in-law of deceased Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot, said she had no involvement with Duch and blamed fellow detainee and former head of state Nuon Chea for the deaths of millions of Cambodians.
'Everything was done by Nuon Chea,' she said. 'I've done the best for my nation, for the motherland.'
Defence lawyers have previously sought to have Ieng Thirith released because of her apparently poor physical and mental health.
'Before the hearing today she whispered in my ear that she had not slept well for the last 10 days, so this hearing could jeopardize her health even more,' Phat Pouv Seng said at a press conference after the hearing.
The Khmer Rouge tribunal was established in 2006 after a decade of negotiations between the UN and the Cambodian Government and consists of international and domestic judges, prosecutors and defence lawyers.
Ieng Thirith, 76, faces charges of crimes against humanity allegedly committed while she was minister for social affairs during the ultra-Maoist Khmer Rouge's 1975-79 reign.
'I am not a murderer, so don't accuse me of murder otherwise you will be cursed to the seventh level of hell,' she shouted in an incensed closing statement to the court.
'I am here to speak the truth and tell you I have done nothing wrong.'
The former English literature professor was in the Phnom Penh court to appeal an extension of her pre-trial detention, but originally ordered her lawyers to speak on her behalf because she was 'too weak' to deliver her plea.
Cambodian co-defence lawyer Phat Pouv Seng said the investigating judges had insufficient evidence to warrant Ieng Thirith's detention.
'No additional evidence linking Ieng Thirith to crimes committed during the period has been added to the case file since she was placed in pre-trial detention in November 2007,' he said.
But prosecutors argued that three years of pre-trial detention was permissible according to international standards and said a suspension could lead to civil unrest and put Ieng Thirith's safety at risk.
Judges are expected to announce a ruling on the appeal later this week.
Five former Khmer Rouge leaders, including Ieng Thirith's husband and former foreign minister Ieng Sary, are currently facing trial for their roles in deaths of up to 2 million people through execution, starvation and overwork.
The group sought to transform Cambodian society into an agrarian-socialist utopia, erase history and start at 'year zero.'
The first stage of the trial of former Tuol Sleng torture facility chairman Kaing Guek Eav, known by his revolutionary name Duch, was held last week.
The Khmer Rouge tribunal announced on Monday that Duch's trial would resume on March 31.
He is the first detainee to be indicted for crimes against humanity.
Ieng Thirith, who is the sister-in-law of deceased Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot, said she had no involvement with Duch and blamed fellow detainee and former head of state Nuon Chea for the deaths of millions of Cambodians.
'Everything was done by Nuon Chea,' she said. 'I've done the best for my nation, for the motherland.'
Defence lawyers have previously sought to have Ieng Thirith released because of her apparently poor physical and mental health.
'Before the hearing today she whispered in my ear that she had not slept well for the last 10 days, so this hearing could jeopardize her health even more,' Phat Pouv Seng said at a press conference after the hearing.
The Khmer Rouge tribunal was established in 2006 after a decade of negotiations between the UN and the Cambodian Government and consists of international and domestic judges, prosecutors and defence lawyers.
10 comments:
Hang the bitch now.
If you voted for CPP (Cambodian People's Party):
Also known as:
Communist People's Party
Khmer Rouge People's Party
Khmer Krorhorm People's Party
You're support the killing of 1.7 million Khmer peoples.
You're support the killing of innocent men, women and children in Cambodia on March 30, 1997.
You're support murder of Piseth Pilika.
You're support assassination of journalists in Cambodia.
You're support political assassination and killing.
You're support attemted assassination and murder of leader of the free trade union in Cambodia.
You're support corruption in Cambodia.
You're support Hun Sen Regime burn poor people's house down to the ground and leave them homeless.
These are the Trade Mark of Hun Sen Regime.
Hun Sen, Chea Sim and Heng Samrin are Khmer Rouge commanders.
When is the ECCC going to bring these three criminals to U.N. Khmer Rouge Trail?
Khmer Rouge Regime is a genocide organization.
Hun Sen Regime is a terrorist organization.
Hun Sen Bodyguards is a terrorist organization.
Hun Sen Death Squad is a terrorist organization.
Cambodian People's Party is a terrorist organization.
I have declare the current Cambodian government which is lead by the Cambodian People's Party as a terrorist organization.
Whoever do business with the current Cambodian government are associate with a terrorist organization.
what is this she-devil and her KR clique talking about, here? must they forget that khmer people and cambodia had aready gone through hell and back during their infamous KR regime era? it shows these criminals have no shame whatsoever! go figure! all khmer people who lived through and survived the KR regime should ask these evil people how they want to repay all the victims who had perished under their stupid, backward gov't? how are they suppose to bring back their million of innocent lives they took away so brutally, savagely without a second thought? she and her kinds should go to hell in the seven circles or whatever! don't let she hypocritical appearance influence the court's honorable rule of laws and justice for all khmer people and cambodia for what they've done to all khmer and cambodia. god bless cambodia.
Ieng Thirith,
You and your husband, Ieng Sary, did go to O Ch'rov in late 1975 to receive 82 khmer pilots including Mr. Kong Lach, from Thai authority.
They wanted to come home to rebuild the country acoording to your husband and Sihanouk's appeal.
Why you and your husband did order to kill them all in front of Chh'bar Jopon at Phnom Toch Phnom Thom, in Battambang.
In a Kang Chorlat for the Rice harvest of 1975, I did see a lot of bones and their uniforms.
Don't try to say you and your husband did not commit those crimes angainst Humanity !
Sithan Hin
May be The Angkor Borei's Ly Deip and Historian teacher Hin Sithan would have known all about the Khmer rouge organisation. Because:
1)- His Siam's wife relate to Nuon Chea
2)- His book " Norna Chea Kheatakors Reas Khmer ?"
3)- His Sisowath School mates and associates.
We are so please to invite Lok Om Pritheacha Former Khmer Rouge Hin Sithan to tell us about Neak kru
Khieu Thirith.
When hearing Mrs. Ieng Thirith's cursing her accusers with "the seventh level of hell", one should wonder whether this curse reflects her own and her comrades' extremism in the punishment of those whom they consider as their enemies or who displease them.
Should she have the same power as between 1975 and 1978, she would almost certainly dispatch her accusers to the "seventh level of hell" - ON EARTH, as she and her comrades had done before to millions of their people.
She is now incarcerated. But who could be sure she is completely harmless to her accusers?
One should also reflect upon similar tirades some of our current leaders have lashed out their critics with, for instance, calling them "animals" or "lunatics" or cursing them with hell. Should they have unchellengeable power and be able to ignore all criticism and the International Criminal Court as in the Khmer Rouge times, who could be sure they would not treat them like animals, or create psychiatric hospitals to lock them up, or send them to hell- again on earth?
One should also wonder whether, because of our upbring and culture, many of us have this extremism trait when we curse our children or other people we hate with hell, with death by bullet shots or by lightening. Who could be sure we are different from the Khmer Rouge, if there were no law, police, courts and jail?
LAO Mong Hay, Hong Kong
Oh leave the Khmer culture out of this, dr Lao.
The people you are talking about are the people who were trained by westerner just like you. They may have different idea than you, but who is to say that your idea is better then theirs. The bottom line is your people have not done any good for Khmer people since you brought your Goddees (the French) into our region. All we can see is revolutionaries spring up like mad, and war and destruction spread all over the place for the last 100 years or so.
The French saved Cambodia from extinction when Cambodia was occupied in the East by Annam and in the West by Siam.
King Ang Duong was crowned by the Siamese King, but he wanted help from France to liberate his country. His son, King Norodom, succeeded in getting the French to come.
It is thanks to the French that Cambodia has that much territory left, has become an independent country and has not become again the vassal of the two neighbours.
Some French say that the Cambodian people are an ungrateful people: es Cmbodgiens sont un peuple ingrat.
It is thanks to the Khmer resistance and the international community that Cambodia has been able to get rid of the Vietnamese occupying forces.
LAO Mong Hay, Hong Kong
Yeah, but that's what you people have been claiming, "The French Saved Cambodia", but is it worthed the destructions and the millions of lifes? If it's so worthed, then why making about the massacre that is a byproduct of the French occupation. Don't you ever learn to be accountable for your own error?
On the other hand, had the Viet or Thai finish up Cambodia. I doubt that the damages will be anywhere close to what we had in the 70's. Moreover, people will enjoyed much better standard of living right now than they ever can do. Is that possible, dr Lao?
In any case, no one ever guarantee Cambodia's destiny to be like paradise, but your people have turned it into hell, dr Lao. Sometime, you must learn to accepting as they are and not making it worse.
Correction:
Yeah, but that's what you people have been claiming, "The French Saved Cambodia", but is it worthed the destructions and the millions of lifes? If it's so worthed, then why making a big deal about the massacre that is a byproduct of the French occupation. Don't you ever learn to be accountable for your own error?
On the other hand, had the Viet or Thai finish up Cambodia. I doubt that the damages will be anywhere close to what we had in the 70's. Moreover, people will enjoyed much better standard of living right now than they ever can do. Is that possible, dr Lao?
In any case, no one ever guarantee Cambodia's destiny to be like paradise, but your people have turned it into hell, dr Lao. Sometime, you must learn to accepting as they are and not making it worse.
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