In this photo released by the Extraordinary Chambers of Cambodia’s Courts, Khieu Samphan, right, sits in a courtroom in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Thursday September 22, 2022. AP
For its final decision before the dissolution, the special court responsible for the trial of the Khmer Rouge for their atrocities upheld on appeal the life sentence for Khieu Samphan, the last living dignitary, for genocide on Thursday 22 September in Phnom penh. The 91-year-old former leader of democratic Kampuchea was also found guilty of crimes against humanity – murder, enslavement, forced marriage, rape – and serious violations of the Geneva Conventions.
Khieu Samphan “had direct knowledge of the crimes and shared an intention to commit them with the other participants in the joint criminal enterprise” that killed nearly two million people between 1975 and 1979, Judge Kong Srim recalled. The charges against him are linked to “some of the most heinous acts” of the Maoist dictatorship, the president of the Supreme Court Chamber has stressed.
Khieu Samphan attended the verdict in court in his wheelchair and listened to the two-and-a-half-hour pronouncement through an audio headset. He was previously sentenced to life imprisonment in 2014 – sentence upheld on appeal in 2016 – for crimes against humanity committed during the forced evacuation of residents of Phnom Penh, in the first part of his 2011 river trial.
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A “historic day”
Nearly 500 people, including victims’ families, Buddhist monks and diplomats, attended the hearing, which court spokesman Neth Pheaktra said was a “historic day”.
One of the few public faces of the regime, Khieu Samphan has consistently denied any involvement in the crimes he is accused of, particularly the Vietnamese genocide. This census does not include the massacres, including mass killings of the Khmer by the Khmer, which are not considered genocide by the United Nations.
Khieu Samphan is the third Khmer Rouge dignitary to be convicted by this special court, made up of Cambodian and international judges. Kaing Guek Eav, nicknamed “Douch”, was sentenced to life imprisonment for war crimes and crimes against humanity. The former torturer, head of what was then the country’s most feared prison, S21, died in 2020 at the age of 77.
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Resolution in three years
The judges handed down the same sentence to Nuon Chea, the movement’s ideologue, for genocide against Vietnamese and Cham Muslims and crimes against humanity. He died in August 2019 at the age of 93. “Brother number one,” Pol Pot, died without trial in 1998.
The Extraordinary Chambers of the Judiciary of Cambodia (ECCC) are now preparing to close their doors without having resolved the controversies that have undermined them from the start. The dropping of charges against three people accused of genocide or crimes against humanity in recent years has reminded us of their fragility in a country ruled by a repentant former Khmer Rouge commander, Hun Sen, who has opposed any new trial on behalf of a national stability.
His cost of more than $330 million compared to the number of convictions also fueled suspicion. His activities should serve as a “model for the future prosecution of serious crimes and massacres at the international level,” said Bin Chhin, Cambodia’s Deputy Prime Minister, in a press conference after the speech. The court has to resolve his last closed case in three years, including after the completion of his archival work.
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