Kiwi’s Khmer torture, death case could progress
For nearly 40 years, New Zealander Kerry Hamill’s family have waited for justice.
That day could now be one step closer as a war crimes investigation into a Khmer Rouge henchman wraps up after almost eight years.
In 1978, Hamill – the brother of Olympic rower Rob Hamill – was seized from a boat off Cambodia, tortured and executed.
Meas Muth was the Khmer Rouge naval commander then, and the investigation’s conclusion has raised hopes he could finally face trial for war crimes.
‘‘It seems to me like it’s actually progress,’’ Rob Hamill said yesterday. ‘‘They haven’t said they’re not pursuing the case any further.’’
For years, setbacks and corruption accusations plagued investigations into Muth, who found a job with the Cambodian Government after the Khmer Rouge fell.
Hamill said there had been some ‘‘dubious’’ turns in the case.
He would love to see Muth have his day in court, though a chance remains that the whole case could be ditched.
‘‘In my mind, he’s definitely a war crimes criminal but whether the court finds that or not, I’m not sure.’’
The process had been a long one, but ‘‘that doesn’t mean to say it shouldn’t happen or continue’’, Hamill added.
‘‘There’s no timeframe that can be put into seeking justice.’’
Even if tried and found guilty, 78-year-old Muth would not be executed, and Hamill was not seeking the death penalty.
The process, he said, was about minimising the chance of similar atrocities happening anywhere again.
Parties involved have been given 30 days to request further investigation, the Khmer Rouge Tribunal announced last week.
A ‘‘closing order’’ would follow six months later, with either indictment or dismissal.
Muth’s defence lawyer told a journalist at The Phnom Penh Post that the case was ‘‘far from over’’, and he expected more challenges for all ‘‘involved in the process ahead’’.
Kerry Hamill, Canadian friend Stuart Glass, and Englishman John Dewhirst were intercepted when sailing the yacht Foxy Lady off what was then Kampuchea.
All three were killed, with Hamill executed some two months after his capture.
His family did not learn of his fate until 1980. They have since fought for justice as a range of former warlords faced various charges and trials.
Muth, a former Khmer Rouge central committee member, was accused in a case launched in 2009.
Under pressure from Cambodia’s government, the case was dropped in ‘‘unusual circumstances’’ in 2011, the NGO Trial International reported.
But investigations resumed, and in 2015 Muth was charged with multiple crimes against Thai, Vietnamese, and other foreign nationals.
Allegations included enslavement, torture, forced labour and forced marriage.
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen has warned Muth’s case – known as Case 003 – would not proceed as it threatened national stability.
Hamill said that warning was hyperbole.
Investigations into a previous joint suspect, Sou Met, ended 18 months ago when Met died.
Hamill’s quest for justice was the subject of 2011 documentary Brother Number One. On July 26, 2009, he testified at the tribunal on the 31st anniversary of his brother’s abduction.
Kaing Guek Eav, who ran the prison where Hamill and Dewhirst were tortured for two months, was jailed for life in 2012.