CAMBODIA-KHMER ROUGE/COURT Khmer Rouge trial begins appeal hearings for two former leaders

Record ID: 148730

  • Title: CAMBODIA-KHMER ROUGE/COURT Khmer Rouge trial begins appeal hearings for two former leaders
  • Date: 2nd July 2015
  • Summary: PHNOM PENH, CAMBODIA (JULY 2, 2015) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF AMBULANCE CARRYING FORMER KHMER ROUGE LEADERS TO COURT PROSECUTORS AND LAWYERS ENTERING COURTROOM EXTERIOR OF EXTRAORDINARY CHAMBERS IN THE COURTS OF CAMBODIA (ECCC) SIGN READING (Khmer, English, French): "COURTROOM" UNITED NATIONS FLAG (LEFT) AND CAMBODIAN NATIONAL FLAG (RIGHT) FLYING PRESS OFFICER AT THE ECCC, NETH
  • Embargoed: 17th July 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Cambodia
  • Country: Cambodia
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA9NWSG6JA64E8H5GDI80Q6KWP6
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: EDITORS PLEASE NOTE: THIS EDIT CONTAINS MATERIAL THAT WAS ORIGINALLY 4:3
    The UN-backed tribunal in Cambodia began on Thursday (July 2) hearings for appeals made by two former Khmer Rouge leaders convicted of crimes against humanity.
    Khieu Samphan, the former Khmer Rouge President and Nuon Chea, the former Khmer Rouge National Assembly Chairman, also known as "Brother Number Two", have been sentenced to life in prison for their part in the forced evacuations, murders and executions of Cambodians in the 1970s "Killing Fields" revolution.
    "Today the appeal court chamber will hear the first appeal made by the accused in this case 002/01, and three witnesses have been called to testify during this appeal hearing," said Neth Pheaktra, Press Officer at the Extraordinary Chambers of Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), outside the court on Thursday.
    On 15 September 2010, Khieu Samphan and Nuon Chea were indicted on charges related to crimes against humanity, genocide and grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions of 1949 in what is referred to as Case 002.
    Case 002/01 is the first of at least two trials against Khieu Samphan and Nuon Chea.
    The majority of Cambodians alive now were born after the bloody era and they embrace the capitalism the Khmer Rouge deplored. Their Cambodia has enjoyed unprecedented peace and development since the late 1990s, but judgment upon Pol Pot's henchmen is still significant for most people.
    Many students and survivors of the Khmer Rouge era had gathered on Thursday to listen to the hearing.
    "The accused are so old so the court should just punish them with their age (life sentence)," said Im Moeung, a 57-year-old man from Prey Veng Province.
    "In my opinion, I want them to be punished to life in jail because Cambodia is in the progress of reform, getting rid of the culture of impunity, so if they really committed the crimes and are not punished, then the culture of impunity is ongoing," said Seng Phalla, a university sociology student.
    Experts say high-profile figures in present day Cambodian politics fear they could be implicated in defendants' testimony.
    The decade-old tribunal has delivered guilty verdicts to only three defendants, two of whom are Khieu Samphan and Nuon Chea. Two other cases are strongly opposed by the Cambodian government, police and national investigating judge, who have been unwilling to cooperate with the tribunal.
    Between 1.7 million and 2.2 million people are believed to have died under the Khmer Rouge.
    Most of the victims died of starvation, torture, exhaustion or disease in labor camps or were bludgeoned to death during mass executions at "killing fields" across the country. Led by Pol Pot, the regime sought to turn Cambodia back to "year zero" in its quest for a peasant utopia.
    Pol Pot, "Brother Number One", died in 1998.
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