The head of the Khmer Rouge tribunal’s Public Affairs Section, Dim Sovannarom, apologized on Friday for an article published by the section’s monthly Court Report that labeled the Khmer Rouge regime guilty of perpetrating “genocide” and other “gruesome” mass crimes, despite only some of those crimes having been fully adjudicated by the tribunal.
The apology followed a letter of complaint from lawyers representing Khmer Rouge navy commander Meas Muth, who said they were “dumbfounded” by the article’s assertions.
“I do agree that parts of the content of the article should not have been included in its published form,” Mr. Sovannarom wrote in a letter to the lawyers.
He added that the article in question, which did not carry a byline, had been removed from the November Court Report.
A new copy of the report was circulated on Friday along with a formal retraction of the controversial article.
