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Ex-Khmer Rouge leader set free due to illness
Source: Agencies |
September 17, 2012, Monday
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CAMBODIA'S war crimes tribunal set free an ex-leader of the Khmer Rouge yesterday, upholding a decision that has outraged survivors seeking an account of the mass killings committed over 30 years ago.
Ieng Thirith, 80, who has been declared mentally unfit for trial, was driven out of the UN-backed tribunal's compound by family members.
The Sorbonne-educated Shakespeare scholar served as social affairs minister during the Khmer Rouge's 1975-79 rule, during which an estimated 1.7 million people died of execution, medical neglect, overwork and starvation.
The tribunal initially announced its decision to free Ieng Thirith on Thursday, saying medical experts had determined there was no prospect for her to be tried due to a degenerative mental illness that was probably Alzheimer's disease.
Prosecutors then delayed her release by filing an appeal demanding that conditions be set to restrict her freedom.
Yesterday, the tribunal's supreme court said it had accepted the appeal, which is expected to be heard later this month. In the meantime, it set three provisional conditions on her movement.
The tribunal said Ieng Thirith must inform the court of her address, must turn in her passport and cannot leave the country, and must report to the court whenever it summons her.
Ieng Thirith was the Khmer Rouge's highest-ranking woman and also a sister-in-law of the group's top leader, Pol Pot, who died in 1998.
She is accused of involvement in the "planning, direction, coordination and ordering of widespread purges," and was charged with crimes against humanity, genocide, homicide and torture.
Ieng Thirith, 80, who has been declared mentally unfit for trial, was driven out of the UN-backed tribunal's compound by family members.
The Sorbonne-educated Shakespeare scholar served as social affairs minister during the Khmer Rouge's 1975-79 rule, during which an estimated 1.7 million people died of execution, medical neglect, overwork and starvation.
The tribunal initially announced its decision to free Ieng Thirith on Thursday, saying medical experts had determined there was no prospect for her to be tried due to a degenerative mental illness that was probably Alzheimer's disease.
Prosecutors then delayed her release by filing an appeal demanding that conditions be set to restrict her freedom.
Yesterday, the tribunal's supreme court said it had accepted the appeal, which is expected to be heard later this month. In the meantime, it set three provisional conditions on her movement.
The tribunal said Ieng Thirith must inform the court of her address, must turn in her passport and cannot leave the country, and must report to the court whenever it summons her.
Ieng Thirith was the Khmer Rouge's highest-ranking woman and also a sister-in-law of the group's top leader, Pol Pot, who died in 1998.
She is accused of involvement in the "planning, direction, coordination and ordering of widespread purges," and was charged with crimes against humanity, genocide, homicide and torture.
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