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| |  | | Saloth Sar | | | context : | Cambodia  | | judgement place : | Cambodia | | status : | Sentenced | | particulars : | Sentenced in absentia to the death penalty in 1979 by a People’s revolutionary tribunal ; died in 1998 | | position : | Prime Minister of Democratic Kampuchea from 1976 to 1979 ; General Secretary of the Khmer Rouge |
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| | | | In 1979, as the Khmer Rouge are overthrown, Pol Pot disappears. He is charged in absentia by a People’s revolutionary tribunal set up under Cambodian decree-law n°1 adopted by the People’s revolutionary council of Kampuchea. The tribunal has jurisdiction over crimes of genocide committed by Pol Pot and other high-ranking officials of the regime; among wich is Ieng Sary (see “related links”).
For that purpose, the notion of genocide has been redefined with respect to the definition given in the 1948 Convention on the prevention and punishment of the crime of genocide, in order to incorporate the crimes committed under the Khmer Rouges. The final draft lists the acts committed by the Khmer Rouge, that is to say “the planned mass killing of innocent people, the forced evacuation of the inhabitants of the towns and villages, the rounding up of the population and forcing them to labour in physically exhausting conditions, the banning of religious practices, the destruction of economic and cultural institutions and social relations”. The court was to infer the existence of a genocide from those actions.
During the trial that was held without the accused from 15 to 19 August 1979 the tribunal considered 8 charges:
1 – Execution of a systematic mass murder plan of the population: blind extermination of almost all the officers and soldiers of the former government, extermination of intellectuals, mass murder of all the persons and destruction of every organization opposed to their regime.
2 – Mass murder of priests and believers, whipping out of religions, systematic extermination of national minorities, opponent or no, for assimilation; extermination of foreign residents.
3 – Forced evacuation of the population of Phnom Penh and of other freed cities and villages; destruction and disruption of social and familial structures; bloodshed and setting up of lethal conditions.
4 – Rounding up of the population into communes, disguised concentration camps, where it was to labor and live in such conditions that it led to its mental and physical destruction, and where it was mass murdered and died in great numbers.
5 – Mass murder of young children, persecution and indoctrination of the youth, turning them into cruel and emotionless bandits.
6 – Undermining of the structures of the national economy: abolition of culture, education and social services.
7 – After having been overthrown by the genuine revolutionary forces, Pol Pot and Ieng Sary kept on opposing the revolution and committed numerous crimes, slaughtering those who refused to follow them.
8 – During their four years in power, Pol Pot and Ieng Sary used the most barbarous method of torture and killing.”
(Trial Watch translation, see Links ‘Jugement de Pol Pot et Ieng Sary’ in French)
On 19 August 1979, Pol Pot is found guilty of genocide by the Tribunal and sentenced to death in absentia.
This trial is widely considered to not have complied with international standards of equity. The international community did not acknowledge the judgment.
In 1997, the co-Prime Ministers of Cambodia, Prince Norodom Ranariddh and Hun Sen have asked for the help of the UN in order to try Pol Pot and others high-ranking Khmer Rouge officials. However, Pol Pot died before an independent group of experts was created to answer this request. | |    | | Trial Watch would like to remind its users that any person charged by national or international authorities is presumed innocent until proven guilty. | |  |  | | nationality : | | | Cambodia | | | date of birth : | | | 19.05.1925 | | | also known as : | | | Pol Pot, Brother Number One, Code 87, Bang Pol, Lamoth | | | period of charges : | | | 17.04.1975 - 07.01.1979 | | | judgement period : | | | 15.08.1979 - 19.08.1979 | | | charges : | | | Genocide | | | profile last modified : | | | 22.11.2007 |
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