ECCC, Case 002/02, Issue 24

Case 002/02

ECCC

Cambodia

English

In the final week before the Trial Chamber adjourned for a month-long mid-year judicial recess, it successfully completed the testimonies of three witnesses and one Civil Party. Two witnesses and the Civil Party discussed their positions within the Khmer Rouge military and their subsequent assignments to work at the Kampong Chhnang Airport construction site (KCA). The fourth witness was the final witness to testify in the trial segment on the First January Dam worksite, and she also provided details of her forced marriage in 1977 to a husband selected by her unit chief. Although there is at least one more witness remaining in the segment on the Airport construction site, the Trial Chamber plans to begin the next trial segment, on the Trapeang Thma Dam worksite in the Northwest Zone, when it returns on 27 July 2015 from the judicial recess. This week also marked the ninth week in Case 002/02 in which the issue of torture-tainted evidence was raised, with the OCP’s attempt to read an S-21 confession during questioning. The consistent recurrence of this matter, as well as the gravity of the legal questions behind it, should spur the Chamber to issue its long-awaited decision on the subject.