Khmer Rouge Leader Ruled Unfit for War Crimes Trial
One of the former leaders of Cambodia’s vicious Khmer Rouge regime has been ruled unfit to stand trial.
The U.N.-backed court ruled on Thursday that the 74-year-old Ieng Thirith, Cambodia’s former minister of social affairs, was unfit to stand trial due to Alzheimer’s disease.
The ruling came just four days before she is set to stand trial with other former leaders of the four-year regime for crimes against humanity, genocide, torture, violation of the Geneva Conventions and homicide. Thirith could potentially go free if prosecutors do not object to the court’s decision within 24 hours.
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A tribunal spokesman said that if prosecutors determine to object to the decision to release Thirith, the court would have 17 days to make a final decision with regards to the former minister.
Claire Duffy of the Open Justice Initiative told Voice of America news that the courts decision is a “very good sign in terms of the court’s compliance with international fair-trial standards.”
Thirith is one of four former members of the Khmer Rouge that is facing trial for the atrocities conducted in Cambodia during the bloody four-year regime.
The Khmer Rouge was a brutal communist guerilla group that killed nearly 2 million Cambodians during its reign from 1975 to 1979. The group came to power following a devastating five-year civil war.
Leader of the group, Pol Pot, envisioned a communist utopia where Cambodian people would be entirely self-sufficient and free of currency and banks, religious influence and education.
The ultra-communist group sought to outlaw all social institutions and was responsible for the killing and purging of intellectuals, foreigners, Christians, Buddhists and businessmen, or “lazy elite,” from Cambodia.
Pot died in a Cambodian village without ever facing charges for the mass atrocities that were orchestrated under his regime.
