A verdict in the Khmer Rouge tribunal’s trial against two of the regime’s most senior leaders will be rendered early next year after hearings in the case wrap up in the next three to four months, according to the court’s U.N. special expert.
In an interview given last week to a Chicago-based radio station, David Scheffer said it is imperative for hearings to continue and to arrive at a conclusion.
“From what I can gather, we’ll probably hear that this trial will end this summer, July/August perhaps, then [judges] have to take maybe five/six months to write their judgment. So we’d be looking at early 2014 for the judgment,” he said, speaking just a day before Friday’s Trial Chamber decision that defendant Nuon Chea is fit to stand trial and that the tribunal’s first so-called “mini-trial,” known as Case 002/01, would proceed.
“This trial, trial number 2, is for the 1.7 million who perished and it’s absolutely imperative that these top leaders working under Pol Pot be brought to justice,” Scheffer continued.
“This is the Nuremberg trial of Cambodia right now, and it must be brought to a conclusion.”
A filing made by the Office of the Co-Prosecutors on Monday said they expected to have finished questioning their remaining witnesses by July, and to make their closing statements in September.
Since Case 002 began in November 2011, there have only been a little more than 160 days of hearings in court. Hearings to determine the fitness of Ieng Thirith, Ieng Sary and Nuon Chea, coupled with multiple hospitalizations of the defendants and ultimately the release of Ieng Thirith last year and the death of Ieng Sary on March 14, have all contributed to significant delays.
On Friday, the Trial Chamber said hearings would resume on Monday, and the case will continue with a confined scope by looking at the forced movement of people and executions at Toul Po Chrey.
