Article 3 of the draft law to try former Khmer Rouge leaders, which makes indirect references to the death penalty, will be deleted and a new provision will be inserted to conform to the Constitutional Council’s recommendations, Minister of Cabinet Sok An said Tuesday.
The Constitutional Council cited a technical error in the Khmer Rouge law that refers to the 1956 penal code, which contains the death penalty. But the Constitution bans the death penalty.
“We will organize Article 3 again as a new article so that its meaning conforms with what we want and the Constitution,” Sok An said.
It is unclear when the law, which is being considered by the Council of Jurists, will be sent to the National Assembly for a second round of reviews.
Sok An said the law will be finished in “the very near future,” so the government will have a draft that is “perfect.”
Some parliamentarians said they knew Article 3 was unconstitutional when they passed the Khmer Rouge law in January, while others said that since the draft law already contains a provision that limits punishment to prison time, there is no need to amend the law.
Funcinpec Senator Sabu Bacha said he suspected Article 3 was unconstitutional, but lawmakers didn’t change it because they wanted to push it through quickly.
“We were worried the law would go through too slow and the government has been accused of not having the will to create this law,” Sabu Bacha said. “If we were too strict, then the law wouldn’t come out.”
CPP National Assembly member Cheam Yeap said he also knew Article 3 was unconstitutional and he tried to persuade his fellow lawmakers to amend it, but his proposal was rejected.
“I want this law to be perfect and not be opposite of the Constitution,” Cheam Yeap said.
Ang Eng Thong, president of the Bar Association of the Kingdom of Cambodia, said lawmakers were politically pressured to pass the law quickly and their debate on the measure was hurried.
“They should sit and talk, and spend more time talking about the law,” Ang Eng Thong said.
