The case against the four is considered as the most complex since the Nazi trials at Nuremberg after World War II.
The trial proper of the surviving Khmer Rouge leaders is to start on November 21, with evidence presented from November 28, the United Nations-backed war crimes tribunal said Tuesday.

By Robert Carmichael in Phnom Penh

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The elderly defendants deny charges of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. They stand accused of responsibility in the deaths of up to 2.2 million people during the Khmer Rouge’s 1975-79 rule.

Tribunal spokesman Lars Olsen explained the significance of Case 002, as it is known in court parlance.

“This is the case of those who are accused of being the leaders and of implementing the policies that allegedly led to the crimes for which they are being tried,” he said.

The defendants are: Nuon Chea, who is known as Brother Number Two and was the deputy to the movement’s late leader Pol Pot; head of state Khieu Samphan; foreign minister Ieng Sary; and his wife, social affairs minister Ieng Thirith.

The four are aged between 79 and 85, and suffer from a number of health problems. Ieng Thirith, who is believed to have Alzheimer's disease, may yet be found unfit to stand trial.

Last month the tribunal said it had decided to separate the charges against the defendants – who will be tried together – effectively dividing the case into a number of smaller hearings.

Judgements along the way
That decision means the court can hand down judgements as the trial proceeds, rather than delivering a single verdict after the full trial, which would likely take years with the risk of defendants dying prior to its conclusion.

“Although the Trial Chamber has recently separated proceedings in Case 002 into a series of smaller trials,” the court said in its Tuesday statement, “the first trial will provide a general foundation for all allegations against the accused, including those which will be examined in later trials.”

The announcement of the start of Case 002 will be a welcome fillip to the tribunal, which in recent months has limped from crisis to crisis, mostly centred on the Office of the Co-Investigating Judges (OCIJ).

The OCIJ, whose role is to assess the evidence against suspects before recommending whether or not to proceed, has been accused of deliberately undermining its own investigations into the final two cases at the behest of the Cambodian government.

Phnom Penh has long given its support to the court’s first two cases, but has also long pronounced itself against the last two – known as Cases 003 and 004 – claiming Cambodia risked being plunged back into civil war should they proceed.

Each of the five suspects in Cases 003 and 004 is alleged to be responsible for tens of thousands of deaths.

Legal meetings
Later this week Patricia O’Brien, who heads the UN’s New York-based Office of Legal Affairs, which oversees the international side of the hybrid tribunal, is scheduled to meet government officials, donors and tribunal staff in Phnom Penh.

O’Brien’s visit follows last week’s surprise resignation of the controversial German co-investigating judge Siegfried Blunk, who said government statements against Cases 003 and 004 could be construed as political interference and had made his position untenable.

In a letter published on the New York Times website on Tuesday, O’Brien said she would discuss the issue of political interference “as a matter of urgency” as well as “the facts regarding concerns about other aspects of the (tribunal’s) work.”

The tribunal is meant to be free from interference from any quarter, but given its structure – with Cambodian and international staff in equivalent positions throughout – it has long been seen as vulnerable to influence.

Violating duties
Last month tribunal observers called on Blunk to quit, saying an array of decisions emanating from the OCIJ, which he headed along with Cambodian judge You Bunleng, were legally dubious.

Human Rights Watch said the two judges had “egregiously violated their legal and judicial duties.”

HRW added its voice to a range of domestic and foreign tribunal observers and survivors who want a comprehensive UN investigation of the OCIJ, something the world body has so far resisted.

HRW said the UN must investigate “numerous credible allegations of judicial misconduct” against the two judges or risk destroying the tribunal’s credibility.

In its first case the court last year the court sentenced the Khmer Rouge’s security chief, Comrade Duch, to 30 years after finding him guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity for his role in the deaths of more than 12,000 people. Duch has appealed against his conviction.