Big News From the ECCC

by Beth Van Schaack, IntLawGrrls
— 11 Oct, 2011

CoInvestigating Judge Siegfried Blunk (right) of Germany has resigned from the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia. His articulated reason: government interference with the investigation of new cases.

The resignation comes a week after Human Rights Watch called for the resignation of Blunk and his Cambodian counterpart, You Bunleng (also right). The group argued that the two have “failed to conduct genuine, impartial and effective investigations,” and as a result have “egregiously violated” their legal and judicial duties such that Cambodians would have “no hope” of justice while they remained at the tribunal.

The Statute of the ECCC as negotiated by the United Nations and the Government of Cambodia grants a majority of key posts to Cambodian nationals, but mandates that many major decisions be made by a supermajority. This requires the assent of at least one international judge. It had long been argued that given the complex structure of the ECCC, the tribunal would only be as strong as its weakest international judge. The current controversy suggested that this dubious distinction belonged to Judge Blunk. We’ve blogged before about the controversy at the ECCC over Cases 003 and 004. Case 003 concerns air force commander, Sou Met, and navy commander, Meas Muth (see interview here).

Case 004 involves three Khmer Rouge regional officials—Aom An, Yim Tith, and Im Chem (below left)—accused of committing genocide and crimes against humanity in their areas of command. The theninternational CoProsecutor, Robert Petit (Canada), submitted the five suspects’ cases to the coinvestigating judges on September 7, 2009, over the objection of his Cambodian counterpart, Chea Leang (see our discussion here and here). Although all three of the Cambodian judges on the PreTrial Chamber sided with Leang, the supermajority formula ensured that the investigation proceeded, although this decision came after the resignation of Petit (see our discussion here)…

Cambodia Tribunal Monitor’s Trial Observer posts are written according to the personal observations and opinions of the writer and do not constitute a transcript of ECCC proceedings or the views of Cambodia Tribunal Monitor and/or its partners. Official court transcripts for the ECCC’s hearings may be accessed at the ECCC website.