Photo by: SOVANN PHILONG The main courtroom at the ECCC, where Duch’s trial will start February 17.
The Phnom Penh Post
Thursday, 05 February 2009
Neth Pheaktra and Georgia Wilkins
Almost 100 victims of the Khmer Rouge’s most brutal torture centre have applied to become civil parties at the upcoming trial
UP to 94 people who were victims of, or bore witness to, the atrocities that occurred at Tuol Sleng, the Khmer Rouge’s most notorious prison camp, will participate in the upcoming trial of the torture centre’s former chief, Kaing Guek Eav, officials said.
According to a statement from the court’s Victims Unit, 66 new applications in addition to an original 28 have been received from victims wishing to be legally represented in the trial as a civil party, which allows them to submit evidence and have access to the case file.
The statement added that the recent influx of applications was due to the court’s outreach programs, which encouraged victims to take advantage of the court’s unique and largely experimental rules – ones that allow greater victim participation than any other tribunal of its kind.
“As a result of outreach activities ... an additional 66 Civil Party applications were received. The Trial Chamber of the ECCC is in the process of admitting the newly received applications,” the statement said.
Keat Bophal, head of the Victims Unit, told the Post Wednesday that applications would likely be submitted to the trial chamber by the end of the week, and that those seeking to become civil parties included the “brothers, sisters and children” of people tortured and killed at the regime’s Choeung Ek “killing fields”.
“Generally speaking, DC-Cam-assisted civil parties are primarily relatives of detainees at Tuol Sleng, with the exception of one survivor who barely escaped death,” a statement released by the Documentation Centre of Cambodia this week said.
According to Keat Bophal, almost all applicants have access to a lawyer.
Thursday, 05 February 2009
Neth Pheaktra and Georgia Wilkins
Almost 100 victims of the Khmer Rouge’s most brutal torture centre have applied to become civil parties at the upcoming trial
UP to 94 people who were victims of, or bore witness to, the atrocities that occurred at Tuol Sleng, the Khmer Rouge’s most notorious prison camp, will participate in the upcoming trial of the torture centre’s former chief, Kaing Guek Eav, officials said.
According to a statement from the court’s Victims Unit, 66 new applications in addition to an original 28 have been received from victims wishing to be legally represented in the trial as a civil party, which allows them to submit evidence and have access to the case file.
The statement added that the recent influx of applications was due to the court’s outreach programs, which encouraged victims to take advantage of the court’s unique and largely experimental rules – ones that allow greater victim participation than any other tribunal of its kind.
“As a result of outreach activities ... an additional 66 Civil Party applications were received. The Trial Chamber of the ECCC is in the process of admitting the newly received applications,” the statement said.
Keat Bophal, head of the Victims Unit, told the Post Wednesday that applications would likely be submitted to the trial chamber by the end of the week, and that those seeking to become civil parties included the “brothers, sisters and children” of people tortured and killed at the regime’s Choeung Ek “killing fields”.
“Generally speaking, DC-Cam-assisted civil parties are primarily relatives of detainees at Tuol Sleng, with the exception of one survivor who barely escaped death,” a statement released by the Documentation Centre of Cambodia this week said.
According to Keat Bophal, almost all applicants have access to a lawyer.
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