The 120 judicial police officers assigned to the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia are learning new investigatory techniques to suit the special needs of the tribunal, according to ECCC officials.
Between Feb 5 and 17, four groups of 30 officers will receive instruction from the International Institute for Criminal Investigation in a seminar supported by the Swiss and New Zealand governments and the tribunal itself, Helen Jarvis, ECCC chief of public affairs, said Tuesday.
“It’s training based on international law,” said ECCC Co-Investigating Judge Marcel Lemonde, whose office helped prepare the seminar. In the absence of the tribunal’s internal rules, Lemonde has yet to work with the police as no cases have been forwarded to him for investigation. “For now, it is training that is preparatory,” he said.
ECCC Co-Prosecutor Robert Petit described the work of the police officers with an example of an alleged instance of mass murder, for which police will have to take statements from many witnesses.
Judicial police will use different means of gathering evidence for the tribunal, he said, “because the elements of the crime that need to be proven [at the ECCC] are different from the elements of crimes that are in national jurisdiction.”
