KRT closes Muth case
General Staff, Muth is alleged to have committed murder, extermination, enslavement, torture, forced labour, forced marriage and rape.
These crimes were allegedly committed at Phnom Penh’s notorious S-21 prison, islands claimed by Democratic Kampuchea and at a number of security centres and worksites.
International co-investigating judge Michael Bohlander announced yesterday that he considered the investigation now closed, but he also issued a separate decision reducing the scope of the investigation into Muth.
Details of that decision were not available as of press time.
Muth’s international defence lawyer Michael Karnavas said yesterday that this case was “far from over”.
“We have a long journey ahead, and I do not expect smooth sailing for any involved in the process ahead,” he said in an email.
Muth’s national lawyer, Ang Udom, meanwhile, reiterated that his client had a right to an expeditious trial and said he had made repeated complaints that forced marriage should not be part of Muth’s case.
Prosecutor Nicholas Koumjian said yesterday’s step was one of several important milestones bringing the tribunal closer to completing its man- date and said the sexual and gender crimes should be considered because they can cause “tremendous long lasting damage to a society”.
The investigation into Muth has been long and controversial. It began in September 2009 and was initially “closed” in 2011 by national co-investigating judge You Bunleng and his then-international counterpart Siegfried Blunk. Blunk resigned as a judge that same year, citing government pressure, though some