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.
‘The court officials were all very professional throughout the proceedings from what we’ve seen,’ says Leakhena Nou, Executive Director of the Applied Social Research Institute of Cambodia (ASRIC).
No comments:
Post a Comment