UN Tribunal Split Could Signal End of Case Against Former KR Navy Commander

[geovalin]

Legal experts say renewed divisions between international and Cambodian court members will likely result in dismissal of the case against Meas Muth.

 

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The United Nations-supported tribunal in Cambodia went through another round of internal wrangling in April when international and Cambodian court members again publicly disagreed over a decision to try the former Khmer Rouge Navy Commander Meas Muth.

 

Legal experts said the renewed divisions signal that the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) is unlikely to proceed with the remaining case against Meas Muth and the case against a former commander named Yim Tith, despite the international prosecutor’s claims to the contrary.

 

The ECCC, a hybrid tribunal that started in 2006 and has cost some $300 million, sentenced torture center chief ‘Comrade Duch’ in 2010 and completed a full guilty verdict against top leaders Nuon Chea and Khieu Samphan in 2018.

FILE - Meas Muth, former Khmer Rouge naval commander whose case at the Khmer Rouge Tribunal continues with uncertainties, sits in his residence in Battambang province's Samlot distrit. (Sok Khemara/VOA Khmer)

 

FILE - Former Khmer Rouge member Ao An during an interview at his home in Cambodia's northwestern Battambang procince, mid-December 2019. (Hul Reaksmey/VOA Khmer)

For many years, however, proceedings in the cases against three other ex-Khmer Rouge commanders—Meas Muth, Yim Tith and Ao An, who are all in their 80s—faced procedural deadlock. As international judges and prosecutors at the tribunal attempted to proceed with the trial, while their Cambodian counterparts tried to dismiss the cases.

 

Most observers believe the Cambodian court members’ position mirrors the Cambodian government’s public position that the trials should be limited to the convictions of the very top leaders Khieu Samphan, Nuon Chea and Duch (the latter two died in 2019 and 2020, respectively).

Split decisions in Case 003

Recently, on April 7, the ECCC issued a statement explaining that the Pre-Trial Chamber’s international judges, Olivier Beauvallet and Kang Jin Baik, decided to indict Meas Muth in Case 003, while the Cambodian judges, President Prak Kimsan, Ney Thol and Huot Vuthy, wanted to ‘archive’ the case. As a formal decision on whether to dismiss or proceed with the trial can only be made when at least four of the five judges agree, Case 003 faces continued procedural deadlock.

 

On April 14, in a reaction to the Pre-Trial Chamber judges’ decisions, the ECCC’s National Co-Prosecutor Chea Leang followed the Cambodian judges and indicated that the trial against Meas Muth cannot proceed, while International Co-Prosecutor Brenda Hollis stated that the Pre-Trial Chamber split statement indicated it could.

 

Meas Muth told VOA Khmer in a brief telephone call in late April that he was unaware of the latest developments in his case. Previously, he denied to VOA Khmer that he held any responsibility for the countless crimes and some 1.7 million deaths caused by the 1975-79 Pol Pot’s regime.

 

The wrangling in Case 003 follows a similar pattern of years of internal court disagreements in Case 004/02 against Deputy Secretary of the Central Zone Ao An, and Case 004 against Yim Tith, commander in the Southwest Zone and later Northwest Zone. Ao An’s case was ultimately dismissed by the ECCC’s Supreme Chamber in August 2020, while Yim Tith’s case awaits further ECCC proceedings.

 

A final ECCC decision is also expected in the weeks ahead in the appeal in the case against Khieu Samphan, which has not been affected by internal disagreements.

 

read more https://www.voacambodia.com/a/un-tribunal-split-could-signal-end-of-case-against-former-kr-navy-commander/5875201.html