kampot town, Kampot province – A provincial judge Monday delayed ruling in a murder trial that human rights observers say could be a measuring stick for Cambodia’s political and judicial reform.
After a full day’s testimony from 11 witnesses in a crowded Kampot courtroom into the June 3, 2000, shooting deaths of Funcinpec activist Pak Chhoeun and his wife, Doung Mean, Judge Kim Ravy announced he would wait until Thursday to deliver his verdict.
Both Im Nan, the former CPP Lboeuk commune chief who allegedly ordered the shootings, and Rith Kha, the alleged shooter, stand accused of murder and the use of illegal weapons in the slayings.
The killings were the only homicides last year classified as politically motivated in the US State Department’s annual human rights report, as the victim was a Funcinpec candidate for commune leadership in next year’s anticipated elections.
Human rights observers say that the credibility of Cambodia’s judiciary depends on the outcome of the trial.
“I think it’s pretty important in terms of a political killing where the offenders have been arrested and tried—a lot depends on the verdict,” said one human rights observer who asked not to be identified.
The ruling CPP has said the shootings were not politically motivated.
Prosecutor Uk Kim Sith downplayed political aspects of the case, saying the evidence was “inconclusive.” Several witnesses testified Monday that Im Nan was jealous of Pak Chhoeun’s “black magic.”
This aspect of the trial upset human rights monitors who were attending the days proceedings.
“The political aspect of this case should have been examined,” the observer said.
Three gunmen carrying semiautomatic weapons and wearing flashlights strapped to their heads stalked the couple as they worked in a rice paddy near their homes, police said.
Rith Kha fired all of the several shots that killed Pak Chhoeun and Doung Mean from an AK-47 assault rifle, police said after the trial, adding that the two other assailants’ SKS assault rifles jammed, so the attackers urinated on them, and then buried them.
Three bullets crisscrossed Pak Chhoeun’s head, police said. One came in under his left eye, the other in his throat, and a final one rammed through his ear as he lay on the ground.
Authorities have issued two arrest warrants for the other unidentified gunmen, whom police believe have fled to the Thai border.
Pak Chhoeun had been nominated to run on the Funcipec ticket for commune elections just months before his death, and human rights observers say that Im Nan could not tolerate Pak Chhoeun’s popularity.
During testimony Monday, two men, Priung Srey, a soldier, and Touch Kosal, a police officer, said that in the weeks before the killings, Im Nan gave each man an automatic rifle and 100,000 riel (approximately $25), telling them to wait for Pak Chhoeun in the rice fields.
“He lent me the gun and ordered me to shoot all the people in Pak Chhoeun’s family if I saw them in the paddy. I went to the paddy and waited for five days, but I did not see him,” Touch Kosal said.
In his closing statement to the judge, Im Nan denied the allegations, saying that the men had borrowed the weapons for their own personal reasons. He referred to the rest of their testimony as “exaggerations.”
Defense Attorney Chea Dara, of the Cambodian Defenders Project, said his clients have been held far beyond the legal confinement, and that Im Nan’s alleged confession to masterminding the murder-for-hire plot was coerced after police tricked him into an interview and then threatened him.
Anything less than an acquittal in the case, Chea Dara said, would be “contrary to justice.”
Judge Kim Ravy said the high-profile nature of the case and the political implications involved did not play any part in his decision to delay the verdict. He said he just needed the two days to sort out the testimony and evidence.
“It’s a very complicated case,” he said.
