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Case 004/2 Involving AO An: Considerations on Appeals Against Closing Orders (Extraordinary Chambers Cts. Cambodia)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 August 2020

David J. Scheffer
David J. Scheffer*
Affiliation:
David J. Scheffer is Vice-President of the American Society of International Law, the Mayer Brown/Robert A. Helman Professor of Law at Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law, Visiting Senior Fellow of the Council on Foreign Relations, and former U.S. Ambassador at Large for War Crimes Issues (1997–2001). He was the UN Secretary-General's Special Expert on UN Assistance to the Khmer Rouge Trials (2012–2018). This Introductory Note reflects strictly his personal observations about the Pre-Trial Chamber's decision and does not necessarily state views held by any other individual or institution.
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Extract

On December 19, 2019, the Pre-Trial Chamber (PTC) of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) rendered its “Considerations on Appeals Against Closing Orders” in Case 004/2 Involving Ao An. The 266-page ruling exemplified, and brought to a head, the longstanding conflict within the ECCC between the national and international co-prosecutors and between the national and international judges on the parameters of personal jurisdiction and the interpretation of relevant provisions of the ECCC's constitutional documents. The fate of the ECCC now hangs in the balance.

Type
International Legal Documents
Information
International Legal Materials , Volume 59 , Issue 4 , August 2020 , pp. 563 - 615
Copyright
Copyright © 2020 by The American Society of International Law

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References

ENDNOTES

1 Case No. 004/2/07-09-2009-ECCC/OCIJ (PTC60), Considerations on Appeals Against Closing Orders, D359/24 & D360/33 (Dec. 19, 2019), https://www.eccc.gov.kh/sites/default/files/documents/courtdoc/%5Bdate-in-tz%5D/D359_24_EN.PDF.

2 Agreement Between the United Nations and the Royal Government of Cambodia Concerning the Prosecution Under Cambodian Law of Crimes Committed During the Period of Democratic Kampuchea, UN–Cambodia, June 6, 2003, 2329 U.N.T.S. 117, https://treaties.un.org/doc/Publication/UNTS/Volume%202329/Part/volume-2329-I-41723.pdf [hereinafter UN/Cambodia Agreement]; Law on the Establishment of Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia for the Prosecution of Crimes Committed During the Period of Democratic Kampuchea, as amended and promulgated on Oct. 27, 2004, https://www.eccc.gov.kh/sites/default/files/legal-documents/KR_Law_as_amended_27_Oct_2004_Eng.pdf [hereinafter ECCC Law]; ECCC Internal Rules (rev. 9) (Jan. 2015), https://www.eccc.gov.kh/sites/default/files/legal-documents/Internal_Rules_Rev_9_Eng.pdf [hereinafter Internal Rules]. Together, these documents will hereafter be referred to as the “ECCC legal framework.”

3 Open Soc'y Just. Initiative, Dead End at Cambodia's Khmer Rouge Tribunal: Next Steps for the un (Apr. 29, 2020), https://www.justiceinitiative.org/uploads/9e0af740-d7b6-4c70-ba0c-96df88328b2c/briefing-eccc-end0304-20200429.pdf.

4 ECCC Law art. 1; UN/Cambodia Agreement art. 1.

5 The Trial Chamber conviction and sentence in Case 002/2 of Khieu Samphan is on appeal to the Supreme Court Chamber.

6 ECCC Law art. 20 new, art. 23 new; Internal Rule 72(4)(d); UN/Cambodia Agreement Art. 7(4).

7 Case No. 004/2/07-09-2009-ECCC/OCIJ, Order Dismissing the Case Against Ao An, D359 (Aug. 16, 2018), https://www.eccc.gov.kh/sites/default/files/documents/courtdoc/%5Bdate-in-tz%5D/D359_EN.PDF.

8 Case No. 004/2/07-09-2009-ECCC/OCIJ, Closing Order (Indictment), D360 (Aug. 16, 2018), https://www.eccc.gov.kh/sites/default/files/documents/courtdoc/%5Bdate-in-tz%5D/D360_Further%20Redacted_EN.pdf.

9 Case No. 004/2/07-09-2009-ECCC/OCIJ (PTC60), Considerations on Appeals Against Closing Orders, ¶ 123.

10 Id. ¶ 122.

11 Id. ¶ 123.

12 Id. ¶132.

13 Id. ¶¶ 204–227.

14 Id. ¶ 320.

15 Id. ¶ 407.

16 Id. ¶ 322.

17 Id. ¶ 324.

18 Id. ¶ 693.

19 Case 004/2/07-09-2009-ECCC/OCIJ (PTC60), International Co-Prosecutor's Request for All Required Administrative Actions to be Taken to Forward Case File 004/2 (AO An) to the Trial Chamber, D359/25 (Feb. 4, 2020), http://www.cambodiatribunal.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/D359_25_EN.pdf.

20 Interoffice Memorandum from Judge Olivier Beauvallet & Judge Kang Jin Baik, Pre-Trial Chamber of the ECCC, to Office of the Co-Prosecutors, Co-Lawyers for AO An, All Civil Party Lawyers in Case 004/2, D363.1.1 (Mar. 12, 2020), https://www.eccc.gov.kh/sites/default/files/documents/courtdoc/%5Bdate-in-tz%5D/D363.1.1_EN.pdf.

21 Memorandum from Judge PRAK Kimsan, President of the Pre-Trial Chamber, ECCC, to Office of the Co-Prosecutors, Co-Lawyers for AO An, and Co-Lawyers for Civil Party in the Case 004/2 (Mar. 16, 2020), https://www.eccc.gov.kh/sites/default/files/articles/Document%203%20%28En%29.pdf.

22 Statement of the Judges of the Trial Chamber of the ECCC Regarding Case 004/2 Involving AO An (Apr. 3, 2020), https://eccc.gov.kh/en/articles/statement-judges-trial-chamber-eccc-regarding-case-0042-involving-ao.

23 Statement, ECCC, International Co-Investigating Judge Reinstated (Apr. 24, 2020), https://eccc.gov.kh/en/articles/statement-international-co-investigating-judge-reinstated.

24 Press Release, ECCC, Press Release from the International Co-Prosecutor & Press Release from the National Co-Prosecutor Regarding the Charged Person AO An in Case 004/02 (May 4, 2020), https://eccc.gov.kh/sites/default/files/media/PRESS%20RELEASE%20FROM%20OCP%204%20MAY%202020%20En.pdf.