Khmer Rouge Tribunal Vows to Press On With Trials After Ieng Thirith’s Death

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Former Khmer Rouge minister of social affairs Ieng Thirith (2nd R) appeals for release at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Court of Cambodia in Phnom Penh, May 21, 2008.


The death of Ieng Thirith will not affect the proceedings of the Cambodian tribunal trying other senior members of the former Khmer Rouge regime for alleged international law violations and crimes committed during the country’s genocide, a spokesman from the national court said.

Ieng Thirith, a former minister of social affairs in the Khmer Rouge who was indicted on charges of genocide, crimes against humanity and grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions of 1949, was the murderous regime’s most powerful woman. She died on Saturday in western Cambodia’s Pailin province at the age of 83.

Neth Pheaktra, press officer of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, also known as the Khmer Rouge Tribunal, told RFA’s Khmer Service that he was waiting to hear from Ieng Thirith’s family as well as her co-prosecutors for confirmation of the cause of death. She is believed to have died of a heart attack.

“The court will examine [her case] with the pre-trial chamber and decide in successive stages [what to do] after they obtain reports from the co-prosecutors who are monitoring the status of her death,” he told RFA’s Khmer Service. “So far, we have not received any notice.”

The pre-trial chamber can hear motions and appeals against orders issued by co-investigating judges while a case is still under investigation.

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