By Pei Hu
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia – Former Khmer Rouge prison chief Dutch’s trial is pushed back due to prosecutor’s appeal to include more charges. Thus far, Dutch has been charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity. The prosecutors want to expand the scope of Dutch’s indictment to include conspiracy to murder and starving and torturing Cambodians in the 1970s.

However, the judges of the Khmer Rouge Tribunal rejected the prosecutor’s appeal for conspiracy and allowed for pre-meditated murder and torture. In part, the court’s reasoning for rejecting the conspiracy claim was to expedite the trial.

There is also disagreement between the prosecutors themselves whether to charge more people involved in the Khmer Rouge regime, under which 2 million lives perished. Currently, there are five key members of the Khmer Rouge regime awaiting trial. International co-prosecutor Robert Petite believes that several more ex-Khmer Rouge members should be investigated; however, Chea Leang, his Cambodian colleague, sharply disagrees. They might file a joint letter of disagreement to the court asking judges to intervene.

This disagreement represents the first conflict between international and domestic officials. Even though the Khmer Rouge Tribunal is a UN funded court, it is still a Cambodian court. The government’s involvement in the Khmer Rouge Tribunal has been under scrutiny since many of the high officials were ex-Khmer Rouge members.

For more information, please see:

BBC – Khmer Trial Clears Final Hurdle– 5 December 2008

BBC – Prosecutor Dispute at Khmer Trial– 9 December 2008

Phnom Penh Post – Tribunal Hit by Row Over New Probes– 9 December 2008