On July 18, the prosecutors communicated their introductory submission to the investigating judges of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) responsible for trying former Khmer Rouge leaders. Five of them are suspected of having "committed, aided and abetted, or borne superior responsibility" for 25 separate acts of "murder, torture, forcible transfer, unlawful detention, forced labor, and religious, political, and ethnic persecution." Though their names remain officially confidential before arrest, they have already been cited by observers: Duch, Nuon Chea, Ieng Sary, Khieu Samphan and Ieng Thirith. Duch, who is now 65, is the former director of detention center S21, and has been awaiting trial in prison since may 1999. Nuon Chea, 80, was Duch's superior in the party hierarchy. Known under his pseudonym, "Brother Number Two," he is considered to be the party's ideologue. Ieng Sary, 78, is another former pillar of the regime. He called for Cambodian intellectuals to return to their country, and when they did, many of their lives were cut short at S21. In 1979, Ieng Sary was sentenced to death in absentia, but was pardoned by the king after rallying to the Cambodian government in the late 1990s. Finally, Khieu Samphan, now 76, headed the state of Democratic Kampuchea. He and Nuon Chea turned themselves in to the Cambodian authorities at the end of 1998. The last suspect is Ieng Thirith, the wife of Ieng Sary, vice-minister of Education and then of Social Affairs from 1975 to 1979. The five suspects' pictures have appeared on the front page of the pro-government daily Rasmey Kampuchea. Other than Duch, all of the suspects live in freedom in Cambodia.

In their submission, the co-prosecutors - one Cambodian, Chea Leang, and the other, Robert Petit, a Canadian - spoke of a "common criminal plan." Could this imply a joint trial for the five suspects? "It's a strategic decision we will have to make with the prosecutors," says French judge Marcel Lemonde, co-investigative judge with Cambodian judge You Bun Leng. Robert Petit, who has experience both with the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and the Special Court for Sierra Leone, adds, "Sometimes a joint trial is the solution, because it is a reflection of the criminal conduct of several people working in agreement with one another. This doesn't necessarily slow the process down - it all depends on how the hearings are conducted." For Chea Leang, "everything lies in the evidence. If there is incriminating evidence, such trial is possible. Trying them individually wouldn't be any more effective." Principal Defender Rupert Skilbeck isn't so sure about it. "The court will have to consider the problems faced by other tribunals. If you have five defendants, all making different arguments in such complicated cases as crimes against humanity and genocide, it becomes a 'megatrial.'"

Given that the court, which has a three-year mandate, is already a year behind schedule, delays are a major preoccupation. "We don't know whether there will be a common trial," Heather Ryan of the Open Society Justice Initiative explains. "This kind of trial takes much more time and is going throught more complex stages. Defendants may object that a joint trial prejudices their case. Yet an advantage of a joint trial is that it may more effectively tell the larger story of what happened..." Theary Seng, director of the Center for Social Development is dismissive of this argument: "The Court is not a history book. Individual guilt must be established based on specific charges."

Also of concern is the number of suspects: why five? "Because the prosecutors have the right to set the number," explains Chea Leang. "The investigative judges may then increase that number." Hisham Mousar, from the Cambodian Human Rights and Development Association (ADHOC), observes with some worry, "There was a list of eighteen names to begin with. Are they going to stop at five? If things are left half-done, the Court will inevitably be known as political." Robert Petit replies, "Preliminary investigations led us to identify these acts and these persons. We are continuing our work without making any presumptions about the future. In circumstances like these, the magnitude of the crimes can only lead to other cases." According to You Bun Leng, given the volume of documents to be studied, the first public hearings will probably take place no sooner than June 2008.