POL POT

The US government approached Sweden as a possible location for a trial of Pol Pot just days before his death in April 1998, according to documents recently declassified by the Swedish government. The documents, reviewed on the country's national Sveriges Radio, show that "representatives from American authorities" approached personnel with Sweden's Foreign Ministry to discuss a secret plan to bring Pol Pot to trial in Sweden or in a third country. Sweden's Ministry of Justice rejected the American plan, saying it would have required the country to file a request to have Pol Pot extradited from Cambodia. A second plan, to have Sweden hold Pol Pot until a trial could be arranged in a third country, was also rejected on the grounds it would have involved an illegal detention, in violation of Swedish law. The documents also reportedly cited Justice Ministry concerns that the vast amount of time that had elapsed since the crimes, as well as the geographical distance between Sweden and Cambodia, meant that the evidence presented against Pol Pot would be too vague.