Former Khmer Rouge official charged with genocide

Meas Muth at his private house in Battambang province. (Source: phnompenhpost.com)

Phnom Penh (VNA) – Meas Muth, a former Khmer Rouge official, was charged with genocide and crimes against humanity by judges of t he Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia ( ECCC ) on December 14.

Meas Muth, a chief of Navy Brigade 64 in Sihanoukville and Kampot from 1975-1979, was also charged with grave breaches of the 1949 Geneva Convention and violations of the 1956 Cambodian Penal Code, namely premeditated homicide.

Meas Muth, 78, committed these crimes in prisons, including Tuol Sleng in Phnom Penh, Enta Nhien in Kampong Som and other locations in Kampot and Sihanoukville.

On December 9, the ECCC charged Yim Tith, another former Khmer Rouge official, with murder and crimes against humanity.

In 2015, the ECCC has investigated and accused five former Khmer Rouge officials of crimes against humanity or breaching international conventions on human rights. They are Xu Meng, who died in 2012, Ao An, Yim Tith, Meas Muth and Im Chaem.

The ECCC gave a life sentence to Dutch, a former director of Toul Sleng, for crimes against humanity and genocide in 2010, and handed down life sentences to Nuon Chea and Khieu Samphan, former leaders of the Khmer Rouge regime, for crimes against humanity in 2014.

Evidence hearings relating to Khieu Samphan and Noun Chea regarding crimes they carried out on Vietnamese and Cham communities when the Khmer Rouge took power in Cambodia are being conducted by the court.

The court, which was endorsed by the United Nations, was established in 2006 with the aim of getting justice for victims of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia from 1975 to 1979.-VNA