Historical figure
Ieng Thirith
Democratic Kampuchea's Minister of Social Affairs; charged in Case 002, she was ruled unfit for trial and died in 2015 without a judgment.
Ieng Thirith (1932 to 2015) served as Democratic Kampuchea's Minister of Social Affairs under the Khmer Rouge (ខ្មែរក្រហម).[1] She was the highest-ranking woman in the regime.[2][3] The Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia indicted her in Case 002, then found her unfit for trial because of dementia. The court never reached a judgment on the charges.[1][3]
Early life
She was born Khieu Thirith,[4] in Phnom Penh.[1] She went to Lycée Sisowath in Phnom Penh with Ieng Sary,[1] and she was among the earliest women graduates of the school.[4] At the Sorbonne in Paris she studied Shakespeare and belonged to the Marxist Circle with Saloth Sar (Pol Pot).[1][4] She returned home in 1957, holding a diploma in English literature, and worked as a professor.[1][4]
In the movement
In 1965 she went with Pol Pot and Ieng Sary to Office 100, near the border with Vietnam, and stayed there until 1970.[1] In 1970 she became Vice-Minister for Culture, Education and Youth of GRUNK. From 1970 to 1975 she worked in Hanoi for FUNK, recruiting cadres and spreading propaganda. In 1974 GRUNK made her its Minister of Popular Education and Youth.[1]
Minister of Social Affairs
In 1975 the Standing Committee of the Communist Party of Kampuchea gave her oversight of culture, social action and foreign affairs. In 1976 she was appointed Minister of Social Affairs, with the endorsement of the People's Representative Assembly.[1] She was often called the regime's "first lady".[4] In mid-1976 Pol Pot sent her to the Northwestern Zone to look into charges that workers were being abused.[4] The journalist Elizabeth Becker held that, as minister, she had power over the conditions of Cambodians' daily lives.[4] She stayed with the movement until the mid-1990s.[4]
Case 002
She was arrested in November 2007 on the order of the court's Co-Investigating Judges.[1][4] In 2010 they indicted her for genocide, for crimes against humanity, for grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions and for crimes under Cambodia's penal code.[1] The genocide count alleged the killing of Cham and Vietnamese group members.[1] The judges found sufficient evidence that she controlled the Ministry of Social Affairs and Office K-2, that she was responsible for buying, making and handing out medicine across the country, and that she was not a member of the party's Standing or Central Committees.[1] They also found sufficient evidence that she was part of a joint criminal enterprise with party leaders.[1] These were findings for the indictment, not a verdict. From late 2011 to 2012 she stood trial with Ieng Sary.[5][6] She called the charges "100 per cent false".[3]
Unfit to stand trial
A geriatrics expert and four psychiatric experts examined her between April and October 2011 and agreed that her symptoms fitted dementia.[7] The psychiatrists found clinical dementia, most likely Alzheimer's.[6] On November 17, 2011, the Trial Chamber unanimously found her unfit, stayed the proceedings against her and ordered her release without conditions.[6] In the ILA Reporter's account, the national judges ordered compulsory treatment and the international judges her immediate release, and the Supreme Court Chamber then told the Trial Chamber to begin the treatment the experts recommended and to review her condition after six months.[7]
On September 13, 2012, after a new expert review, the Trial Chamber again found her unfit.[7] The tribunal saw no prospect of trying her in the foreseeable future, and it said that releasing her neither withdrew the charges nor found her guilty or innocent.[3] On September 16, 2012, the court ruled that she could be released while it decided the Co-Prosecutors' appeal, provided she gave it her address, handed in her passport and other travel documents and stayed in Cambodia.[8] The Supreme Court Chamber later held that keeping her passport and identity card was unnecessary and disproportionate. One proposed condition of release was a medical examination every six months by doctors the court named.[7] She went home to her family's care in September 2012 and stayed under judicial supervision until her death.[5][1]
Death
She died at 83 in Pailin province.[5][2][4] She died on August 22, 2015,[7] and the court ended the proceedings against her two days later.[1] She died at 10:30 a.m. in Al Jazeera's report[5] and at 10:45 a.m. in The Cambodia Daily's.[4] She had been gravely ill for several months and needed oxygen and a feeding tube after a stay in hospital in Thailand.[5]
References 8
- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14 1.15 Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, Ieng Thirith (undated)
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 The Irish Times, Top female in Cambodia's Khmer Rouge dies aged 83 (August 22, 2015)
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Al Jazeera, Cambodia to free Khmer Rouge 'first lady' (September 13, 2012)
- ↑ 4.00 4.01 4.02 4.03 4.04 4.05 4.06 4.07 4.08 4.09 4.10 The Cambodia Daily, Ieng Thirith, Khmer Rouge 'First Lady,' Dies at 83 (August 24, 2015)
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 Al Jazeera, Khmer Rouge's 'first lady' Ieng Thirith dies (August 22, 2015)
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 UN News, Cambodia: UN-backed court rules former Khmer Rouge leader unfit to stand trial (November 17, 2011)
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 ILA Reporter, Fitness First? Assessing the Treatment of Fitness to Stand Trial in the Trial of Ieng Thirith (undated)
- ↑ UN News, Khmer Rouge leader granted provisional release by UN-backed genocide court (September 16, 2012)
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