Khieu Samphan, one of the senior leaders of the Pol Pot genocidal regime, at the court on August 19, 2021. (Photo: AFP/VNA) This final ruling by the ECCC’s Supreme Court Chamber on Samphan's appeal against his life sentence would bring Case 002/02, along with the decade-long tribunal, to a close as there are no further cases on the docket, The Phnom Penh Post reported.
Prior to the pronouncement of the verdict, the ECCC held a press conference on September 20 to reveal the procedural steps in the case and the background of the proceedings from the court's first day up to its final hearing.
Neth Pheaktra, chief of the Public Affairs Office and spokesman for the ECCC, confirmed that Samphan’s verdict would bring to a close its mission to seek truth and justice for the Pol Pot victims through trials against former senior leaders of the Democratic Kampuchea regime and those most responsible for the heinous crimes committed from April 17, 1975 to January 6, 1979.
Samphan – now 91 and the only surviving former senior Pol Pot leader – has been in custody since November 19, 2007, when he was first arrested and has remained there through his August 7, 2014 conviction.
The crimes against humanity Samphan participated in included the executions of the former regime's loyalists after the fall of Phnom Penh in April, 1975 and for the subsequent forced evacuation of the civilian population of the capital, which led to the deaths of tens of thousands of people.
Samphan was also found guilty of grave breaches of the 1949 Geneva Conventions and genocide against the Vietnamese.
He and his lawyer appealed the November 2018 verdict, pleading that the Supreme Court Chamber reduces his life sentence to a limited prison term. The Supreme Court Chamber held hearings on the appeal from August 16-19 last year, with both the prosecution and Samphan's defence attorneys presenting arguments to the court./.
VNA
