A squad of Khmer Rouge soldiers parade in front of AngkorWat. Date unknown.

The Extraordinary Chambers

in the Courts of Cambodia

The Khmer Rouge Trials have now begun. The official name for the Khmer Rouge Trials

is the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia. The purpose of the trials

is to bring to justice the senior leaders of Democratic Kampuchea (the name of the

state established by the Khmer Rouge) and those most responsible for committing serious

crimes in Cambodia from April 17, 1975, to January 6, 1979.

JUDGES AND PROSECUTORS

Co-Prosecutors

The Co-Prosecutor will collect evidence and decide whom to charge and with what crimes.

Most of the investigation, however, will be done by the Investigating Judges. The

case will go to trial if there is enough evidence. Once the trial starts, the co-prosecutors

will present the evidence in court.

Chea Leang

Age: 37

Kampong Speu Province, Cambodia

Leang studied in Germany where she received her Master of Arts in Law from Martin

Luther University in 1995. In 1996, she began her legal career in the Ministry of

Justice. She was promoted to Deputy in the Training Office of the Ministry of Justice

in 1999.

Leang joined the Cambodian judiciary as a Prosecutor in the Appeals Court in 2002.

She has received additional training in Denmark on Human Rights, in Japan on Legal

and Judicial Cooperation, and in The Hague (Netherlands) on International Criminal

Investigations.

Robert Petit

Age: 44

Canada

Petit was called to the Bar in Canada in 1988 and served as the Provincial Crown

Attorney, Québec Ministry of Justice in Montréal from 1989 to 1996.

Since 2000 he has been Counsel for the Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Section,

Federal Department of Justice in Ottawa, Canada. He served as a Legal Officer in

the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, Kigali,

Rwanda, 1996-1999; Regional Legal Advisor for the United Nations Mission in Kosovo

from 1999-2000; Prosecutor, Serious Crimes Unit, United Nations Mission of Assistance

to East Timor in 2002; Senior Trial Attorney, Office of the Prosecutor for the Special

Court in Sierra Leone from 2003-2004.

Co-Investigating Judges

The Co-Investigating Judges are responsible for collecting evidence. The case will

go to a trial only if they can find enough evidence to show that someone was a senior

leader of Democratic Kampuchea or one of the people most responsible for serious

crimes.

Marcel Lemonde

Age: 60

France

Lemonde is stepping down as presiding judge in the Criminal Chamber of the Paris

Court of Appeal in order to join the ECCC. He has held the position in Paris since

February 2005. Earlier in his career he was a counselor in the Court of Appeal in

Versailles, and later he was President of the Investigating Chamber of the Court

of Appeal in Bastia, Corsica. At a press conference in Phnom Penh on July 7, Lemonde

and fellow Co-investigating Judge You Bun Leng said the tribunal was still deciding

on which and how many ex-KR to prosecute.

You Bun Leng

Age: 48

Kandal Province, Cambodia

Bun Leng has been a Judge of the Appeal Court of Cambodia since 1993. Before that

he worked at the Ministry of Justice for 11 years. Bun Leng received his Bachelor

in Law from Ho Chi Minh City University, Vietnam. He later completed his Master Degree

program from the Royal University of Law and Economics in 2004. Bun Leng has received

training on international criminal investigations at The Hague, Netherlands. He has

also attended a UNDP course to prepare for Khmer Rouge Trials. In the past few years

he has worked as a professor at both the Royal School for Judges and Prosecutors

and the Lawyers Training Center. He is also a member of the Board of Directors for

the Royal School for Judges and Prosecutors and the Royal Academy for Judicial Professions.

Principal Defender

The Principal Defender is appointed by the United Nations and is responsible for

ensuring international standards of defense of all the accused in court. If a person

on trial cannot afford a lawyer, then the Principal Defender will provide a lawyer

of international standard for them.

Rupert Skilbeck

Age: 35

Britain

Skilbeck practices criminal law, human rights law and international criminal law.

From 2005 to 2006, he was the Director of Odsjek Krivicne Odbrane, the criminal defense

section of the war crimes chamber of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Sarajevo.

In 2004, he acted as the Defense Advisor to the Special Court for Sierra Leone in

Freetown. From 2000 to 2004, Skilbeck was an executive on the Bar Human Rights Committee.

Specific missions included the West Kingston Commission of Inquiry for Amnesty International

in Jamaica, the Ammesty International delegation on the death penalty in Zambia,

and developing human rights education in Nepal. At a press conference in Phnom Penh

on July 7, Stilbeck said all defendants had the right to a fair trial, the right

to be presumed innocent and that the defense would strictly enforce these rights.

Judges in the Pre-Trial Chamber

If the Co-Prosecutors or Co-Investigating Judges cannot agree about whether to take

a case to trial they will present their views to five judges on the Pre-Trial Chamber.

The Pre-Trial Chamber judges will decide whether the case will go to trial. Neither

the Cambodian nor the international judges, co-prosecutors or co-investigating judges

can alone block a case from going to trial.

Rowan Downing

Age: 53

Australia

Downing is a senior Australian lawyer. He has been a judge of the Court of Appeal

and Supreme Court of Vanuatu, dealing mainly with criminal law. He has presided over

a number of Australian Government Tribunals. Downing has been involved in the training

to the Australian Defense Force in respect of war crimes law and the laws of warfare.

In 2005 he was an adviser to the government of the Lao PDR and has worked within

the Mekong region.

Huot Vuthy

Age: 39

Kampong Cham Province, Cambodia

Vuthy serves as the Prosecutor of the Kandal Provincial Court. In 2001, Vuthy was

appointed as a member for the Council for Legal and Judicial Reform. Before becoming

a prosecutor, Vuthy was the Director of the Civil Affairs Department at the Ministry

of Justice. Vuthy received his Master of Arts in Law from Metchnikov City University

in Odessa, Russia in 1994. He attended a UNDP course on International Humanitarian

Law to prepare for the Khmer Rouge Trials. Since 2002, Vuthy has been a professor

at the Royal School of Judges and Prosecutors in Phnom Penh. In 1996 he worked as

a Legal Advisor for the Documentation Center of Cambodia.

Katinka Lahuis

Age: 47

Netherlands

Lahuis serves as a Justice in the criminal section in the Court of Appeal of Leeuwarden,

Netherlands. She has worked in criminal law as a public prosecutor, lawyer and judge.

She has served as an investigating judge and presiding judge in the criminal law

division, the pre-trial division, and the extradition division. Lahuis also worked

for several years at the Training Center for the Judiciary in the Netherlands where

she developed training programs for the Dutch Judiciary.

Ney Thol

Age: 55

Prey Veng Province, Cambodia

Thol has been the President of the Military Court since 1987. He has worked in the

military since 1979, as a military officer in Takeo Province, and then at the Ministry

of National Defense. He then studied in Vietnam for two years and returned to Phnom

Penh to serve as the Director of the School for Military Officers before taking his

position at the Military Court. Thol has also trained in Phnom Penh, the United States,

Australia and Vietnam. He is presently studying for his Masters in Political Science

at Chamroeun Polytechnic University, Cambodia.

Prak Kim San

Age: 63

Kampong Cham Province, Cambodia

Kim San has 19 years of judicial experience in Cambodia. He began working as a Deputy

Prosecutor in Kampong Cham in 1987. He was then a Prosecutor for the Supreme Court

until 1994 and a Supreme Court judge. Since 2005 he has been a Member of the Council

of Jurists. Kim San received his certificate of Administration and Law at the School

for Administration and Law in 1987. He also attended a course at the Cassation Court

in Paris in 1995 on international criminal law, military tribunals and judicial independence.

In 2004, he attended a UNDP course on international humanitarian law to prepare for

the Khmer Rouge Trials.

Judges in the Trial Chamber

The Trial Judges hear the evidence presented by the prosecution and by the defense;

they consider both sides of the case and determine the suspect's guilt or innocence.

The trial judges must issue a written judgment explaining the reasons for their decision.

In order for a person to be punished, four of the judges on the Trial Chamber must

agree that they are guilty.

Dame Silvia Cartwright

New Zealand

Cartwright is New Zealand's 18th Governor-General. She graduated with a law degree

from Otago University in 1967. After several years in private practice, she embarked

on a judicial career which culminated in her appointment to the High Court - the

first woman in New Zealand to achieve this. Cartwright has contributed as a member

of the UN committee monitoring compliance with the United Nations Convention to Eliminate

All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). She was made a Dame Commander

of the Order of the British Empire in 1989 and Principal Companion of the New Zealand

Order of Merit in 2001.

Jean-Marc Lavergne

Age: 45

France

Lavergne completed his higher education at the Clermont-Ferrand Law School, after

which he went on to receive his Masters in Private Law and Public Notary Certification

in 1983. In 1988 Lavergne was appointed to the High Civil Court of Angers as Parole

Judge. In 1997 he was appointed as the presiding judge at the Criminal Appeals Court

of Loire Atlantique and Morbihan, a chamber within the Court of Appeals of Rennes.

Since 2001, he has acted as Vice-President of the High Civil Court of Mans.

Nil Nonn

Age: 50

Kandal Province, Cambodia

Nonn is currently the President of the Battambang Court. He has worked as a judge

in Cambodia for 13 years. He received his Bachelor of Law at Ho Chi Minh City University,

Vietnam. He has also taken a UNDP course to prepare him for his work at the Khmer

Rouge Trials.

Thou Mony

Age: 43

Kampong Cham Province, Cambodia

Mony studied in Germany, where he received his Master of Arts in Law, at the University

of Leipzig in 1991. He became a judge in Cambodia in 1996. He has served the Cambodian

judiciary for ten years, most recently as a judge in the Appeals Court. Prior to

that Mony was an Officer at the Department of Civil Affairs at the Ministry of Justice

and responsible for inspecting the works of the provincial courts. Mony is a lecturer

at the Royal School for Judges and Prosecutors.

Ya Sokhan

Age: 51

Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Sokhan received his Master of Arts in Law at the University of Metchnikov in the

USSR. He went on to work as a judge in the Banteay Meanchay Court in Cambodia. He

has taken a UNDP course to prepare him for his work at the Khmer Rouge Trials.

Judges in the Supreme Chamber

The Supreme Chamber Judges hear cases after the Trial Chamber has made its decision.

The Supreme Chamber can reverse the decision of the Trial Chamber. The Supreme Chamber

judges must issue a written judgment explaining the reasons for their decision. If

the Supreme Chamber is called to hear a case, five of the judges must agree that

they are guilty in order for that person to be sentenced. The Supreme Chamber may

not hear every case; if they do not hear the case then the decision of the Trial

Chamber is the final decision.

Chandra Nihal Jayasinghe

Sri Lanka

Jayasinghe serves as a senior Presiding Judge of the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka.

Prior to that he was President of the Court of Appeal of Sri Lanka. Jayasinghe's

extensive career includes 22 years in the Attorney General's Department mostly in

criminal work.

Jayasinghe received his Bachelor of Law Degree from the University of Colombo. In

1996, he was awarded a Diploma in Human Rights by the University of Lund, Sweden.

Agnieszka Klonowiecka-Milart

Poland

Klonowiecka-Milart will be leaving her current post as the most senior international

judge in the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo. She has worked

in Kosovo since 2000 on war crimes, genocide, crimes against humanity, and terrorism.

She previously worked with the UN Judicial System Assessment Program in Bosnia and

Herzegovina. Klonowiecka-Milart became a judge in Poland in 1991. During the late

1980s and 1990s, she was involved in the protection of human rights and judicial

reforms.

Srim Kong

Age: 49

Kandal Province, Cambodia

Kong has served as the Deputy Prosecutor General of the Appeal Court since 2000.

Kong began working as a judicial officer in Cambodia in 1993. From 1993 to 2000 Kong

was the Prosecutor General in the Court of Appeal. Prior to that he was the Deputy

Chief of Prosecution at the Department of Criminal and Civil Affairs. From 1985 to

1992 he was an officer at the Ministry of Justice. Kong received his Bachelor of

Law from Ho Chi Minh City University, Vietnam in 1991. He has also taken a UNDP course

to prepare him for the Khmer Rouge Trials.

Motoo Noguchi

Age: 45

Japan

Noguchi started his career as public prosecutor at the Ministry of Justice in 1985.

He is currently a professor at the United Nations Asia and Far East Institute for

the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders in Tokyo, serving concurrently

as senior attorney at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, International Legal Affairs

Bureau. In Cambodia, Noguchi was a professor at the Research and Training Institute

of the Ministry of Justice and later served as counsel for the Asian Development

Bank. He is a law graduate of the University of Tokyo and worked at the International

Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands in 2005.

Dr Sin Rith

Age: 38

Pursat Province, Cambodia

Rith studied law for ten years in the Republic of Kazakhstan. He received his Ph.D

in Law in 1997 at Kazakhstan National University. He began as a Legal Officer at

the Ministry of Justice in 1998. He was appointed to the judiciary in 2001 as the

Deputy Prosecutor to the Battambang Court. In 2005 he was appointed to the Supreme

Court as the lead Prosecutor. Rith has worked as a member of the team tasked with

drafting the Civil Code and Civil Procedure Code for Cambodia. He taught international

criminal law as a Professor at the Royal School for the Judicial Professions and

the Royal University of Law and Economics.

Som Sereyvuth

Age: 53

Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Sereyvuth has 18 years of judicial experience. He has been a Judge of the Supreme

Court of Cambodia since 1988. Prior to that, he was an Officer of the Supreme Court

for from 1986 to 1988, and acting President of the Cabinet of the Ministry of the

Interior from 1979 to 1986. Sereyvuth studied Law in France at the National School

for Judges ENM in 1995, and received a degree from the University of Lumiere in 1998.

Sereyvuth has attended seminars in Japan, Switzerland and Paris. Sereyvuth has worked

as a Trainer at the Royal Academy for Judicial Professions, and from 2005 he has

been a member of a team drafting the Civil Code and Civil Procedure Code for Cambodia.

Dr. Ya Narin

Age: 40

Rattanakiri Province, Cambodia

Narin has served as a judge at the Rattanakiri Court since 2002, and was promoted

to President of the court in 2005. Narin took judicial office in 2001, following

his employment as an official in the Secretariat of the Law Council in the Council

of Ministers. In the secretariat he was responsible for studying draft laws and regulations

proposed by the Ministries. Narin began his legal studies at Kazakh State University

in 1987. He went on to obtain his Ph.D from the State and Law Institute of Kazakhstan

in 1998, specializing in criminology.

Khmer Rouge leaders who may be charged

The ECCC has restricted its candidates for prosecution to the category of "senior

leaders and those who were most responsible." The individuals listed below are

the senior living Khmer Rouge leaders, all of whom-except for Duch- are listed in

Stephen Heder and Brian Tittemore's 2001 report titled "Seven Candidates for

Prosecution" commissioned by the War Crimes Research Office and the Coalition

for International Justice. The Post is unaware of any possibility that they will

be tried by the ECCC, and presents them only as possible witnesses and potential

sources of information.

NUON CHEA, Brother No 2

Real name: Long Bunruot

Age: 79

Positions in KR: Deputy secretary Central Committee; member of Standing Committee;

believed to be head of Security Committee.

Whereabouts: Pailin Municipality.

Chea was reportedly the ideological guru of the Khmer Rouge and may have played a

leading role in devising and implementing the Communist Party of Kampuchea (CPK)

execution policies. Following his defection in 1998, he has been living in Pailin

and claims to be a devout Buddhist. He denied any knowledge of mass executions, claiming

such killings would only have been committed by "enemy agents."

KHIEU SAMPHAN

Alias: Hem

Age: 74

Positions in KR: Chief of State of DK regime, officially replaced Pol Pot as Prime

Minister of DK government-in-exile late 1979, nominal leader of KR for years and

key KR diplomat/negotiator during the peace process.

Whereabouts: Pailin Municipality

Elected to the National Assembly in 1962, he resigned from his government post in

1963 and fled to join the Communist underground in 1967. During the KR period, he

was attached to the Central Committee of the CPK when his duties involved minute

taking at the meetings of the political bureau of the CPK indicating he would have

likely gained an clear understanding of the scale of the party's crackdown against

its "enemies." Officially surrendering to the government in 1998, he has

retired to a secluded compound in Pailin where he lives with his wife and two young

children. In 2001, he issued a seven page public letter in which he offered an apology

to the Cambodian people but denied any knowledge of mass executions and claimed "history

should remain history."

IENG SARY, "Brother No.3"

Real name: Kim Trang.

Positions in KR: Deputy Prime Minister for Foreign Affairs, Central and Standing

Committee Member.

Whereabouts: Phnom Penh

Won a scholarship to study in France and, like numerous of his peers, returned to

Cambodia infused with Communist ideology. Following crackdowns by the government

he fled with Pol Pot to the remote jungles of eastern Cambodia in 1963. During the

KR period he was DK Foreign Minister and became the most visible spokesman for the

regime. He has denied all knowledge of the party's purges but is believed to be individually

responsible for encouraging arrests and executions. Received a Royal Pardon in 1996

after defecting with hundreds of rebel fighters. Now living in a villa off Sothearos

Boulevard he reportedly spends much of his time at the Wat Svay Pope pagoda.

MEAH MUT

Positions in KR: Secretary of the Central Committee Division 164 which incorporated

the DK navy.

Whereabouts: Anlong Veng/Samlaut

The former son-in-law of Ta Mok, Mut announced at Mok's recent funeral in Along Veng

that he was ready to face the KR tribunal if necessary. At a 1976 meeting of division

cadre held by Son Sen - the minutes of which are held by DC-Cam - Muth spoke up in

support of Party measures to cleanse itself of dissent within the ranks.

His attendence at numerous General Staff Meetings suggests an awareness of arrests

of civilians and party cadres. Was directly involved in the arrest and transfer to

S-21 of cadres from his divisions and is believed to be responsible for arrests and

executions perpetuated by subordinates within his own division.

SOU MET

Position in KR: Secretary of Central Committee Division, CPK Military Division

Chairman.

Whereabouts: Unknown, possibly Battambang.

As with Muth, Met was directly involved in the arrest and transfer to S-21 of cadres

from his divisions and is believed to be responsible for arrests and executions perpetuated

by subordinates within his own division. Attended numerous Central Committee military

unit meetings, the minutes -held by DC-Cam-suggest he was fully aware of the tortures,

executions and purges carried out by the party.

DUCH

Real name: Kaing Khek Iev

Positions in KR: Head of Tuol Sleng S-21 interrogation centre

Whereabouts: Government custody, Phnom Penh.

Among the most notorious of the KR's torturers and executioners, after the collapse

of the regime he worked for international aid organizations under assumed names for

many years. Now a Christian, he claims his imprisonment is "OK [as] they can

have my body. Jesus has my soul." There is "massive documentary evidence"

against him according to a DC-Cam report.