Prosecutors submit introductory statements for UN-backed Khmer Rouge trials

Prosecutors working on the United Nations-backed trials of Cambodia’s former Khmer Rouge leaders, accused of mass killings and other horrific crimes during the late 1970s, today filed documents on cases of murder, torture and other serious crimes.

The Co-Prosecutors of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), which is composed of national and international judges, filed their first Introductory Submission – a text containing facts that may constitute crimes, identifying people suspected to be responsible for those crimes and requesting the Co-Investigating Judges to probe those crimes and suspects.

Based on their preliminary investigations, the Co-Prosecutors have identified and submitted for investigation 25 distinct factual situations of murder, torture, forcible transfer, unlawful detention, forced labour and religious, political and ethnic persecution, as evidence of the crimes committed during the period of Democratic Kampuchea, according to a press release from the ECCC.

In support of their factual submissions, the Co-Prosecutors have transmitted more than 1,000 documents constituting more than 14,000 pages, including documents from over 350 witnesses, thousands of pages of documentation from the era of Democratic Kampuchea and the locations of more than 40 undisturbed mass graves.

Under an agreement signed by the UN and Cambodia, the trial court and a Supreme Court within the Cambodian legal system will investigate those most responsible for crimes and serious violations of Cambodian and international law between 17 April 1975 and 6 January 1979.